You're Mine
by Emperor Zeref Dragneel
Summary: After the battle with Pain, Sakura welcomed Naruto back to the village with a hug. Naruto was shocked by what she did, but nonetheless elated by her gesture, as it stirred an old memory that lay dormant within him for a long time. Just what did Sakura mean when she hugged him back then?
1. Chapter 1

**You're Mine**

 **Full Summary:** After the battle with Pain, Sakura welcomed Naruto back to the village with a hug. Naruto was shocked by what she did, but nonetheless elated by her gesture, as it stirred an old memory that lay dormant within him for a long time. Just what did Sakura mean when she hugged him back then?

 **Main Pairings:** Naruto and Sakura, as always.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.

 _The Hug_

As Naruto was placed down by Kakashi in the wake of all the villagers rejoicing his return, he could hear their jubilant shouting and celebrating as they welcomed him back into the village. He was surprised, as he had not expected to return to such a massive homecoming ceremony. It was way different from what had happened when he had come to the village three years after he had left it with Jiraiya to embark on a training trip with his goal to retrieve his best friend, Uchiha Sasuke,, from the grip of Orochimaru and bring him back to Konoha. Back then, only a handful of shinobi, among them his peers and also the Fifth Hokage and his master, Hatake Kakashi, who had welcomed him to the village he had grown up in all his life.

It was also different from all the times that he had returned from the village after all the missions he had been assigned to as part of Team 7, as most times he came back he was in injuries and had to be tended to immediately in the Konoha Hospital, by none other than his beautiful, pink-haired teammate, Sakura Haruno.

Nothing in the past had compared to what he was witnessing now, and Naruto reminisced to a time when he was a kid, the first time he was assigned into Team 7 with Sakura and Sasuke, and Kakashi had assembled them on the roof of the Academy, with the purpose of hearing about their goals now that they had become genin and had been recognized as official shinobi by the citizens and standards of Konoha.

" _My goal is to become Hokage. And I'll make all the villagers acknowledge my existence!" He proudly shouted to be heard by his sensei and his two teammates._

The words reverberated within Naruto's mind, and he realized that he was now living his dream. All the villagers were smiling broadly as they raised their hands and clapped to his return, and just there, and then, there was no sign of malice or discomfort on their expressions. Naruto had grown up being the apple of discord in his own home village, for reasons he soon came to learn about later, but those reasons further strengthened his goal and dream as a shinobi. The villagers had come to accept and acknowledge him fully, and then, just then, Naruto felt his face break into a small smile.

However, his moment of bliss was not coming to an end anytime soon, as he would shortly come to discover.

Naruto heard a set of footsteps slowly and steadily approaching him, and he directed his gaze to the source of the sound. He was mildly surprised when his eyes landed on his female teammate, Haruno Sakura. Her hair was covering her eyes, so Naruto could not see her emerald eyes, the same set of eyes he had grown accustomed to during most of his life as a shinobi. He had not told her before, but deep down inside him, he realized that they were the most beautiful pair of eyes he had ever come across his entire life. He smiled inwardly as he thought of this fact, but then he realized that the footsteps had come to a halt and there was no sound coming from the girl now standing before him.

Her lips were pressed together in an expression that indicated something which Naruto could not tell. Her fingers were clenched together, and Naruto realized that she was pissed off. The reason? He had seen that same exact expression on her so many times before every time he goofed off or acted idiotic in front of her, and ended up on the wrong side of her fist each time that happened. Once he had asked his late master, Jiraiya, why she only punched him and not other boys in the village, and the Legendary Sannin gave him only one answer.

" _That's how she shows she cares, kiddo. Girls like Sakura aren't exactly the cutesy type, so most times they will show their love and affection for you by resorting to really, strange methods."_

 _Naruto stared at him dumb founded. He knew the white haired man was not exactly the luckiest guy around when it came to girls, but well, he knew a hell lot about them owing to the content he wrote in his perverted book, Icha Icha._

" _Uh-huh, and you know this how?"_

 _Jiraiya grinned at him, and raised his hand to point at himself, before saying,_

" _Tsunade does it to me all the time!"_

 _Naruto's eyes widened in surprise, and he chuckled a little, before thinking to himself, "Figures", but then outwardly he only said one thing to his master,_

" _That's not exactly something to be proud of, Ero-sennin."_

When the girl raised her fist to meet Naruto's head, he found himself not fidgeting as he did in fear of her blows, but well, he let the impact land on the topside of his head. It stung, a little, and the blonde man realized it hurt less than all the other blows he had received from her in the past. _Ah, well, Sakura-chan will heal me afterwards, so it's worth it_ , the village hero thought to himself as he felt his body descending to the ground. The thought that he could spend some more time with his beloved once all this had passed made a slight grin appear on his face, and so he awaited the all-familiar contact with the ground.

It never came.

Instead, Naruto's eyes widened as he felt himself falling into a soft, warm set of arms. His eyes widened as he became familiar with the sight of Sakura's fair arms. Her arms looked so fair, so beautiful, and for a moment he found it hard to believe those were the same set of arms that she used to defeat the S-class shinobi of the Akatsuki, Sasori of the Red Sands. Thinking about it closely, he realized that he had never actually gotten such a clear view of her hands this way. It was a marvelous sight.

He could not have expected what she came to do next, in a million years.

Slowly, but steadily, she rose him from the position he was in, and wrapped her arms around his head and torso. Naruto's eyes widened further, and then the whole realization if the matter hit his body like a shockwave. Almost like the **Shinra Tensei** he had withstood from the man he had just emerged from a battle with, Pain.

Sakura Haruno was hugging Uzumaki Naruto.

It was like something out of his wildest dreams, and honestly Naruto could feel his heartbeat quicken as he felt the warmth of his teammate next to his. He had been close to Sakura before, of course, with the whole mission to retrieve Sasuke from Orochimaru's hideout, when she cradled him in her arms after he had collapsed from his onslaught of the snake shinobi using the Kyuubi's power. Back then, he had been focused with the mission that he did not pay heed to what had happened between them in that crater, but this time, it was different.

Everything was different. There was nothing between them, no obstacles to get in their way, nothing to convince him that none of this that was happening was not real. No, it was all real. He could feel her arms around him, and a faint blush broke on Naruto's cheeks. He then remembered something that Jiraiya had told him, a request he had made of him before he dived further into mastering the Summoning Technique.

" _Naruto, do you have a girl you like?"_

 _Naruto was taken aback by the white-haired man's question, as no one had before asked him so openly who he had feelings for like that. Sheepishly, he rubbed the back of his head, then muttered softly," He-he, there might be someone. Maybe Sakura-chan…."_

" _Hmm?" The white-haired man gave him a closer look to hear what he was saying better._

 _Naruto then blurted out immediately, "It's Sakura-chan!"_

" _Good, then go give the woman of your dreams a big hug right now!"_

 _Naruto was bewildered by such a request, and wondered what in Kami's name was the white-haired man thinking by telling him that._

But now, he realized as the girl wrapped her warm arms around him, that the old man may have had a point after all back then.

"Heh, I guess you were right about the girl affection thingie, Ero-sennin," the blonde man thought, as he enjoyed the warmth emanating from his teammates body.

 **A/N:** I'm not exactly sure whether this should be a one-shot or not, but I have a nagging feeling in me that I haven't seen the last of this story yet. Again, here is another NS story for all your deary eyes, and I hope you will enjoy it tremendously. Don't worry, I haven't dropped the other four stories yet, I'm still going to update them, I'm not giving up on them till I see them through to the end. In commemoration for the wonderful NaruSaku in the latest episode, enjoy!


	2. Discovery

**Chapter 2**

 **Discovery**

Uzumaki Naruto was sprawled on the bed in his house, his hand covering his face as he was reflecting on everything that had happened so far since the invasion of Pain had been done through and through. After successfully saving the village from the Akatsuki leader, all that was left was reconstructing the village that had been reduced to rubble, but his efforts to assist the villagers had been turned down. They had exempted him alone, saying that he had already done enough to save the village, so all he had to do now was to leave the rest to them. Finding nothing to do in the village as most of his favorite places had been destroyed too, he decided to just enjoy the solitude within his house, which luckily, had managed to avoid damage owing to the fact that it was contained a bit farther away from Central Konoha.

"The village is safe…the village has acknowledged me…." The blonde boy thought, and a smile broke on his visage. He felt his excitement growing within his body, and could have begun leaping around his room in ecstasy. Although he hadn't realized it when Kakashi had returned him to the village, everyone in the village had been all smiles and celebrated his return. This made him reminisce back to his days as a genin, when Team 7 had just been formed by the silver-haired man, and they had been asked to state their dreams on the roof of the Academy.

" _My dream is to become the Hokage! And I'll make all the villagers acknowledge my existence!"_

Back then, he was sure that no one had taken him seriously, owing to the reputation he had in the village of being the most mischievous boy around. However, he had vowed since that day to make everyone acknowledge him, no matter how impossible of a dream it seemed. After all, his nindo was to never give up.

And now, his dream had become a reality.

He chuckled a little and felt a feeling of satisfaction well up within him. He had managed to accomplish part of his dreams; now all that was left was becoming the Hokage. However, he had no rush in becoming the village leader, as there was something he had to do before he took the mantle that his father held before him. His thoughts shifted to a raven-haired boy, and he felt something in his heart drop. Shaking away that feeling that had just appeared then, he decided to revel in the happiness that he had just been experiencing, deciding that when the time came he would save Sasuke, as he had resolved in the past.

"The village is safe…the village has acknowledged me….and Sakura-chan has…" his thoughts halted there, as he felt his cheeks turn beet red at the thought of the pink-haired kunoichi that held his heart. His thoughts shifted from the dark-haired Uchiha that had formed the third member of their team, and came upon the smile of a beautiful, emerald-eyed, pink-haired kunoichi. Remembering how she had embraced him once he had returned to the village, Naruto felt the reddening on his cheeks increase, and he had to thank Kami owing to the fact there was no one else in the room with him at that moment.

Haruno Sakura was a girl that Naruto had feelings for since forever. Ever since the first day he had laid eyes on her, he felt his heart grow warmer and he begun crushing on the girl since then. His feelings for her had grown stronger since then, such that by the time they were ready to graduate from the Academy, he was already in love with her. Even if she was mean towards him and never gave him the time of the day, he was happy seeing her smiling daily as she talked with her friends in the Academy and carried out her assignments as a student.

The words she had said on that day on the roof echoed vividly in his mind.

" _What do you hate?"_

 _Sakura cringed at this and clenched her fists together as she muttered, in a displeased voice,_

" _Naruto!"_

 _Naruto's face fell into dismay at that point, and he felt his heart sink a little, but still,_

…. He still loved her and his feelings for her hadn't diminished by a fraction. Even watching her swoon over Uchiha Sasuke daily had done nothing to discourage her from doing his best to try and win over the pink-haired girl. He was a bit displeased that she had only eyes for the other genin in their team, but well, all was fair in love and war. However, slowly by slowly, she had started changing how she treated Naruto, and it all started on that day from the bench outside the Academy.

" _Hey Naruto! We'll be late!"_

 _Naruto, who had been holding his stomach earlier, owing to the mishap he had in the bathroom, looked up to see the pink-haired girl waving at him. He was surprised at the way she was smiling at him; however, it had been too good to believe. Remembering how he had turned into Sasuke earlier and the way he had been to seeing Sakura in that form, plus seeing the raven-haired boy walking nonchalantly on the streets earlier meaning he had escaped from Naruto's bindings, he came to one conclusion. Sasuke had turned into Sakura and decided to get back at Naruto._

" _You think I'll fall for that, Sasuke?"_

 _Naruto then crossed his fingers together in his trademark_ _ **Shadow Clone Technique,**_ _but his stomach protested again, so he had to rush to the washrooms again to relieve him. However, as he rushed to the toilet, he had a shout behind him, from 'Sakura.'_

" _Naruto you idiot!"_

 _He looked back as he was running, and got a glance of the pink-haired girl gritting her teeth and closing her eyes in annoyance as she shouted at him. She looked as cute as he had always seen her; however, he was a tad confused. If it was really Sasuke, would he really resort to calling him an idiot as what had just happened? For a second, the thought that it was really Sakura crossed his mind, but his mind was too occupied with the idea of finding a restroom, so he decided to push the matter to the back of his mind and think about it later._

However, since then, the dynamics between him and his pink-haired love had changed drastically, and he could not be more pleased. The two had gradually grown closer and closer, even when Sasuke was still around Naruto and Sakura still managed to spend time together, and Naruto found himself content with just watching over her like that. Sasuke broke her heart and left the village, and Sakura broke Naruto's heart by pleading with him to bring the Uchiha back. Putting his pain behind him and resolving to bring back Sasuke for Sakura, he confronted the man and was ultimately defeated. Once he had returned to the village bruised and battered after the fight at the Valley of the End, he met Sakura in the hospital and guilt riddled him. Apologizing to her and promising that he would not back down on saving Sasuke and subsequently his promise to her, he flashed her one of his trademark smiles, and the look of satisfaction he had seen on her face strengthened his resolve to return the Uchiha as soon as possible.

Ever since then, their team had been reduced to the blonde man plus Sakura, and they found themselves growing closer and closer. Sakura learnt things about Naruto that she did not know before, and she felt glad that she was slowly but surely growing to understand the blonde boy. Naruto found himself with her a lot of times, and shared with her things that he had not told most people in the village. However, nothing in the world would prepare Naruto for receiving that hug from her on that day. Naruto found himself thinking about Sakura more times than he had in the past, and each time, it would result in a smile on his face plus a hint of embarrassment, evident from the red that stained his cheeks then.

A week had passed since that time, and Naruto had still not found out what Sakura had meant when she hugged him then. He had wanted to ask her what she had meant by that, but he had the nagging feeling it would make her flustered and he would find himself being hit on the back of his head by the girl, before she stormed off and told him not to mention that before her again. Still, Naruto felt like he _really_ had to know what she meant back then. At times like this, Naruto wished that his white-haired hermit godfather was still alive, since the man had seemed to possess a lot of know-how regarding women and how their minds worked. Naruto suddenly felt a strong sense of nostalgia from the moments he had spent with Jiraiya travelling, and his heart became heavier.

As if on cue to break him out of the thoughts that had flooded his mind then, Naruto heard a knock on his door. He uncovered his face and looked towards the living room, wondering who had done him the pleasure of coming to his place. His mind flashed once more to the pink-haired girl, and he immediately shot up from the bed, his face lighting up in excitement. He almost fell out of the bed as he got off it in a rush, and nearly ran till the door, hoping to open it to meet the face of his most favorite girl in the world.

The delight that had been present on his face ebbed away moments later as he came face to face with his one-eyed teacher.

"Yo, Naruto!" Kakashi greeted his student as he raised one hand in the air and had his one visible eye closed in happiness. Naruto stared at his silver-haired teacher in dismay, a bit disappointed that it wasn't Sakura that had come to see him. However, one thing was odd. Kakashi had never actually come to his house to see him in the many years that he had served as Naruto's jounin sensei. Naruto was a bit confused as to why his teacher had paid him a visit at this ungodly hour.

"Kakashi-sensei, why are you here? You never come to see me."

The Copy Ninja pouted a little from his student's blunt question, before rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"What? I can't come to see my cute protégé after he became the village hero? I'm hurt, Naruto."

Kakashi then placed his hand over his heart to display heartache, but Naruto stared at him with a disinterested expression on his face before shaking his head.

"Yeah, not buying that, Kakashi-sensei. But seriously, why are you here?"

Kakashi chuckled a bit uneasily, then told Naruto, in a light-hearted tone as earlier," Well, you see, I finished reading my Icha Icha series, and since there are no more issues being published, I grew a little bored. So I wanted to treat my cute little student to ramen. I should spend time with them once in a while, right?"

Naruto had folded his hands over his chest while listening to the silver-haired man, and once he was done Naruto felt the respect he had for his teacher dwindle by a little. Still, he had to admit that Kakashi was right on one thing. With the death of Jiraiya, who had been the sole publisher of Icha Icha, there were no more volumes that were going to be in publication. Unless, of course, Naruto decided to take up his master's profession, but the blonde man had not shown the slightest interest in books ever since he learned how to read.

A question then popped in Naruto's mind.

"Wait, isn't Sakura-chan one of your students too? I don't see why you have to treat specifically me.

Deciding that it would be best not to voice it since it would probably lead to another flurry of excuses from the man standing at his door, he huffed a little, before stepping out where he was in close proximity with Kakashi. Kakashi's one eye widened a little in curiosity, as he wondered what his student was planning to do. Naruto then held out one hand behind him, and slowly closed the door to his home. He realized that he probably would be stuck in his house for the rest of the day, so it wouldn't do any harm to accompany Kakashi for ramen. Besides, it wasn't every day that Kakashi treated Naruto for ramen, so why not?

"Okay, Kakashi-sensei, let's go."

The silver haired man closed his one eye in happiness, before the two descended down the flight of stairs leading to Naruto's apartment.

Before long, the duo of teacher and student found themselves at Naruto's usual favorite joint for eating ramen, Ichiraku Ramen. As a way of thanking Naruto, the villagers had decided that one of the places they needed to rebuild as part of their scheme in rebuilding the village was Ichiraku Ramen, and Naruto had found himself pleased at seeing the building was as good as it had been before it had been leveled by the rubble from Pain's **Shinra Tensei.** To add more to his glee that day, Teuchi had served Naruto's favorite ramen, Ichiraku miso ramen with chashu, and once the bowl had been placed in front of Naruto, he had found himself drooling with excitement as he took in the aroma of his favorite dish. He took one helping of the food and soon found himself in heaven as he relished the taste of the food.

As he was in the midst of enjoying his meal, he heard his teacher speaking beside him. A bit surprised as he had forgotten for a while who had been with him in the café at that moment, Naruto looked to his teacher, his mouth still full of ramen, then mumbled to Kakashi to repeat what he had told him earlier.

"So, Naruto, has anything being bothering you lately?" The silver haired man asked his blonde student, his tone serious and at the same time carrying a hint of worry for Naruto. Naruto widened his eyes in surprise, not expecting his teacher to ask him something like that out of the blue. He swallowed the ramen that had been on his mouth earlier, and then as he did, he realized that this was probably the reason why Kakashi had decided to visit him. As if he had run out of books to read and was bored. Kakashi was a man who took his time reading each and every book out of his erotic library at home, so hearing Kakashi had run out of books to read was something that Naruto found would signify the end of the world the following minute.

"That was what this was about then," Naruto muttered to himself as he stared at the bowl that was in front of him, not looking at Kakashi. Kakashi saw his student's mouth move and shifted his stool closer to Naruto to hear what he had just said, but then the blonde man spoke up again.

"Nee, Kakashi-sensei, you were there too, weren't you?" Kakashi's expression portrayed the confusion he had been feeling at that moment, but then Naruto continued, not giving the silver-haired man a chance to ask what he had meant by his earlier statement. "When you brought me back to the village after I was to make Ero-sennin a memorial, you saw Sakura-chan hug me. What do you think she meant by that?"

Kakashi took in each word the younger shinobi was saying, and he felt himself growing more and more amused with the Uzumaki. However, in the pit of his stomach he felt a sense of relief. He had come across Naruto quite a few times in the past week strolling through the village, and each time he had come across the blonde boy he always seemed to be pondering about something, while his gaze was always affixed to the ground each and every time. Kakashi had grown increasingly worried and wondered what was plaguing Naruto's mind, since one of his dreams had already been reached. However, learning now that it was due to the pink-haired member of their team, Kakashi felt relief that it was something simple that had been nagging at Naruto, and something that he would have realized if he had just looked a bit nearer to home.

More so, a small part of Kakashi was relieved that Naruto still held strong feelings for his female teammate. It had been evident to Kakashi a while back that Naruto had been in love with Sakura, owing to the countless advances he made on her plus all the attempts he made to ask her out on dates. The silver haired man was glad that after all that had happened between his team, at least one thing had not changed, Naruto still loved Sakura. For some odd reason, that Kakashi couldn't quite place his finger on, he felt as if this was what Sakura needed more than anything, someone who loved her selflessly and cherished her such as Naruto, by her side.

"Wait, Sakura?" A third voice interrupted the tranquil atmosphere that had been between Naruto and his master. Naruto looked ahead of him where the voice had come from, and was surprised that it had come from the old man who owned the ramen shop that they were currently in, Teuchi. He was in the process of preparing ramen for the next batch of customers that were going to drop in any minute, but since no one had showed up for a while since Naruto and Kakashi graced the shop with their presence, so he was preparing the delicacy at a much slower pace.

"Old man, you know Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked a bit bewildered. Leave it to Naruto to forget that he had come here with Sakura a lot of times and ended up treating her to ramen each time.

Teuchi dropped the sieve that he was using to separate the noodles from the hot water, folded his hands over his chest, and held his head high to look at the blonde man ahead of him. Naruto stared at the apron-clad man curiously, wondering what he was going to say next.

"Of course I know her, as if I'd forget the first girl that Naruto brought here on a date all those years ago," Teuchi firmly stated, to Kakashi's and his daughter Ayame's , who was behind him, amusement. And much to Naruto's embarrassment, as he immediately began staring at the half-finished bowl of ramen before him more intensely than he had during his entire meal, in an attempt to hide the red that had rushed to stain his cheeks then. Kakashi let out an "ooooooh' and the café's owner's daughter chuckled a little in the background, as she remembered that day when Naruto brought Sakura to Ichiraku Ramen, when she had finally told him the issue regarding Sasuke's cursed seal and Orochimaru.

Naruto managed to recompose himself, chasing away the slight blush that had adorned his cheeks moment, then cleared his throat a tad too loudly, in an attempt to take control of the atmosphere of the room.

"As I was saying, Kakashi-sensei, what do you think Sakura-chan meant by that gesture? Or I'm reading too much into it?" Naruto said, the last part of that statement carrying a tone of disappointment. Kakashi, being the conservative man he was, was able to pick up on that tone, and then an idea popped into his mind.

Stuffing one hand into the ninja pouch strapped onto his waist, he told Naruto, "I want you to see something first." Naruto wondered what Kakashi was looking for in his pouch, before the man drew out a book with a green cover, and Naruto cringed on the stool he was currently seated on. He would recognize the book from anywhere, of course having spent two years of his life with the author, and still after all that time, he had not found out what had made the book so appealing to his teacher. To him, the book was one of the most boring books he had come across in his life. But of course, Uzumaki Naruto was never one for books, since he seldom visited the Konoha Library, even whilst urged by Sakura to expand his knowledge by reading more.

"Um, Kakashi-sensei, how is Icha Icha supposed to provide any answers for my dilemma at the moment?" The blonde man asked to his teacher, in a dull manner. He thought Kakashi was playing a prank on him, and frankly, he wasn't in the mood for them.

Kakashi began flipping through the pages, looking at each one intently as if looking for something specific. From the corner of his eye, he could see Naruto's dead gaze on him, and he replied to his student's earlier question," Just wait, Naruto. You'll have the answers you need in a min- There it is!" The man exclaimed in satisfaction, placing a finger between the pages that he had just landed on, and then passing the book to Naruto.

"Read this paragraph, then you'll see what I mean. It's one of my favorite parts in the book, "Kakashi said, while smiling under his mask to the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki. Naruto took the book unsurely, and then deciding that it was worth a shot since he was the one who had asked for Kakashi's help, began reading from the place he was given.

… _.as she wrapped her hands around him, in the vicinity of her room, she could feel him get flustered under her body. Her petite breasts pressed against the firm and strong chest muscles he possessed under the vest he was clad in, and suddenly he felt all the blood in him rush to his nether regions. Suddenly, she recoiled, after feeling something hard pressing against her groin, and then shifted her gaze to where the hardness originated from. He looked aside in embarrassment, feeling as though she would kick him out of her room at that moment, but to his surprise, she lowered her form, and then her hands removed themselves from his back, and travelled lower….._

Naruto all of a sudden closed the book, and once his face came into view, a nosebleed threatened to stain his facial features. Of course, in the past, Naruto would have been unfazed by such a passage, despite his perverted tendencies, since he would not find anything to relate to with the extract. However, with the recent event that had occurred between him and Sakura, images of the pink-haired girl and him in his room, imitating the same actions that he had just read about, flooded his brain, and he had found it a Herculean task to eliminate the perverted images that were dominating his mind at the moment. Hence, the blood that threatened to escape from his nostrils.

He immediately shoved the book back into the arms of his teacher, who for some annoying reason, had a smile plastered onto his face the entire time.

"Kakashi-sensei, damn you."

"My my, I raised quite the foul-mouthed student, didn't I?" Kakashi replied, in a manner that was equally annoying to the expression on his visage. However, deep inside, the White Fang's son felt glad that he had managed to eliminate the sadness that Naruto had been feeling earlier, even though it had been through…. _unorthodox_ methods. Naruto looked terribly flustered at the moment, and that provided a source of amusement for Kakashi as well.

"Naruto, what's wrong?" Teuchi asked, visibly worried about one of his all-time favorite customers. The voice interrupted Naruto's present chaos of erotic thoughts, and he had to shake his head to gain a grasp of the situation in order to respond to the shop owner.

The blonde man immediately shot up from his seat, surprising everyone who was in the shop at that moment. "I-uh, remembered something I'm supposed to take care of! I need to go; Kakashi-sensei will take care of the ramen! See you, Teuchi-san, Ayame-san!"

With that, Naruto had darted out of the stall, not giving a chance for the duo of father and daughter to call him back.

However, just as he was on the opposite side of the street that led to the ramen store, he had his teacher's voice calling him out from the store. Kakashi was leaning over his stool, his torso present as he looked at the retreating back of his student.

"Naruto wait!"

Naruto halted momentarily in his leave, something in the older man's voice telling him that this was something important so he had to pay attention to it. However, he did not turn his flushed face to look into the dark eyes of his teacher. Kakashi, taking his student's halting as a sign of approval for him to continue with what he was saying earlier, decided to proceed,

"Just know this. Sakura is a really smart girl. And she doesn't do things without thinking them through. She's never hugged any boy in the village before, well, except Sasuke, but that's an entirely different case. So I don't think she hugged you on a whim. From my experience with girls, hugging leans more towards the romantic side than the friendship side, so think about that for a while."

 _Wait, Kakashi-sensei has experience with girls?"_

This thought briefly flashed through Naruto's mind, but he brushed it off, realizing that Kakashi had stopped talking, effectively halting the hints that he had been giving Naruto. From the corner of his eye, Naruto saw that the older man had resumed his earlier sitting position, so the conversation had been ended there. However, knowing Kakashi, and the training sessions he had been through with him, Naruto assumed that Kakashi was going to let him find the answer to his question on his own, so he tread on the path he was currently on. A small smile broke on his features, and he felt the load that had been on his heart earlier lighten by a little.

 _Thanks, Kakashi-sensei._

 _Team 10_

The trio of Nara Shikamaru, Yamanaka Ino and Akimichi Chouji had currently exited Chouji's favorite Yakiniku joint in Konoha, after a long and tedious day involving repairing the village. Shikamaru had been assisting in organizing the villagers in an attempt to have them rebuild the village as soon as possible, owing to the fact Tsunade was still in a coma, and her assistant, Shizune was currently taking care of the Hokage, in an attempt to restore her to full health. The shinobi manpower in the village was currently limited, so the Nara had been assisting his dad in reorganizing the villagers, and so far, things were going smoothly.

"Hey, isn't that Naruto?" Ino suddenly spoke up, alerting the two male members of her team to the incoming Uzumaki Naruto. He seemed to be in relatively higher spirits, owing to the way he was trotting across the streets in a merry manner, so Shikamaru and Choji decided to pass him their greetings as he crossed them. To their surprise, however, their female teammate was already one step ahead of them, already appearing in front of her fellow blonde shinobi. Her hands were clasped behind her back, and the front part of her body was lowered, as she tried staring into Naruto's face.

The Uzumaki came to a surprising halt for the second time that day, as he almost bumped into the Yamanaka in front of him. It wasn't everyday Naruto ran into Ino, so this was definitely the second time that day someone he knew surprised him by their untimely appearance. Still, that did not stop him from greeting the female ninja.

"Um, hi Ino. How are you?" Naruto said, a bit nervously. He had not had a lot of chances to converse with Sakura's best friend in the past, so he was not sure what her intentions were at the moment.

The blonde babe moved her body a bit closer to Naruto, trying to study his facial features a bit closer, causing a bead of sweat to break out on Naruto's face then. After what seemed like an eon, she opened her mouth to respond to Naruto. "Hmm? And what's got our favorite ninja so giddy today?" This caused Shikamaru and Chouji to stare nervously at the woman, taking note of the fact that she had obviously ignored Naruto's greeting earlier.

The young Nara closed his eyes in annoyance, remembering vividly what Ino had said once Naruto had been hailed as a hero in his return to the village back then with Kakashi.

" _I can't believe he did that all by himself," Shikamaru said, as his body was supported by his best friend, his ankle breaking from Pain's technique to destroy the village._

" _Uh-huh," his best friend, Chouji, agreed, as he stood next to the Nara._

" _I could almost fall for him," a third voice said beside them, and the two males looked in surprise to find that the words had come from none other than their female teammate, Yamanaka Ino._

His mind returning him to the present, he realized, with a surprise, that Ino had probably been serious back then. Well, Ino was the kind of girl that fell for people in regards to their looks or their coolness factor, so Shikamaru, realizing that Naruto was currently at the top of the coolest guys in Konoha at the moment, had a feeling this was bound to happen sooner or later. Still, Shikamaru had to be impressed with the way Ino was always bold and upfront about what she wanted, and chose to go for it head-on, rather than being a lazy ass like him and letting whatever happens happen. He had to give her props for that.

The Akimichi on Team 10, however, had completely different thoughts on the matter. While he too understood what Ino was trying to do, this wasn't the time or place for this, since they were needed elsewhere to continue with the reconstruction of the village. Choji walked till where Ino was, and tapped her on the shoulder, before telling her, much to her chagrin.

"Hey Ino, we need to go. Remember we are needed elsewhere?" The brown-haired man said to his teammate.

Ino gritted her teeth at this statement, and was prepared to stomp on Choji's foot, that was next to her, before Shikamaru appeared behind the two and placed his hand on Choji's shoulder. The plump shinobi looked back at his best friend, and Shikamaru shook his head. Both Ino and Choji were surprised at this, but Choji understood what he had meant, despite being surprised that Shikamaru would let Ino off that easily. Well, Shikamaru did tend to show great respect for what other people decided to do on their own, so this was not something that Chouji found totally unexpected. With that in mind, the two males walked away, leaving their teammate in the company of one Uzumaki Naruto.

Naruto, who had been watching the entire incident with Shikamaru and Choji with confusion evident in his eyes, soon realized that he had been left alone with Ino. The nervousness that he had been feeling earlier had all come back rushing at him, and he found himself speechless in the presence of the Yamanaka girl.

Ino, on the other hand, was elated at the consideration of her teammates. Returning her attention to the blonde ninja ahead of her, she smiled at him broadly; further increasing Naruto's uncertainties of the woman's intentions. Weakly, he opened his mouth to try his hand at another conversation with her.

"Um, Ino,-

However, before he could finish the half-made sentence that had formed itself in his mind then, he suddenly felt a strong tug on his hand, and the next thing he knew, he was being dragged by Ino away.

"Let's find a quieter place, where we can have a long, nice conversation. Ne, Naruto?"

She did not await Naruto's response, who's mind was again, thrown into a chaos of confusion, for the second time that day.

 **A/N:** I had to cut this chapter before I reached the end, since well, cliffhangers are a really fun thing to have, aren't they? Either way, I hope you will love this chapter as you did the first, and don't be afraid to review. Love y'all.


	3. Yamanaka Ino

**Chapter 3**

 **Yamanaka Ino**

As the blonde girl who was now leading Naruto by the hand made another turn at a street, he found himself continuously puzzled by where they were heading to. Of course, any earlier thoughts of resistance towards being dragged along by Ino all fizzed away, since Naruto remembered being advised by Nara Shikamaru a while ago about how bossy a girl Ino was. The best he could do in this situation was resigning himself to his current predicament and trust whatever the girl had in mind for the both of them. Besides, he reassured himself mentally, Ino and he were on generally good terms, so what's the worst that could happen to him?

Still, that did not prevent him from opening his mouth to ask the question that had been eating away at his mind for a while now. "Um, Ino, where are you planning on taking me?" Naruto asked a hint of ever-growing curiosity in his voice. Even with the situation as befuddling as it was, the Jinchuuriki could not hide his sheer love of surprises from the tone in his voice just then. He felt a strange sense of anxiety about all that was transpiring to him.

Ahead of him, the Yamanaka did not let go of his hand or pause for an instant as she replied to his query, failing to satiate his growing curiosity," That's a s-e-c-r-e-t, Naruto." Ino's voice had carried a certain tone of playfulness embedded with cheerfulness, something that Naruto took note of as he had never heard the girl talk that way to either of her teammates. He did not allow it to bother him as much, churning it to the girl's present mysterious behavior, but he felt his heart sinking as his earlier question remained unanswered. Huffing a little out of exhaustion, he allowed the girl to continue leading him on through the streets of his home village, sparing a glance or two at things that caught his attention as he passed them.

The duo walked on in silence for what seemed like an awfully long amount of time to Naruto, before he realized that ahead of him, he could catch a faint glimpse of the Hokage's Tower, and subsequently, a view of the Great Stone Faces that had been etched into the mountain that overlooked Konoha. He raised an eyebrow in surprise, wondering what Ino had in store by bringing him to what seemed a completely odd place to have a chat. His heart welled with nostalgia, as his mind took him to a time long, long ago, to a moment when he was still a kid.

 _With a hint of bitterness and sadness in his memories, the blonde boy remembered vividly how he used to spend most of his childhood atop the stone structures that were currently within his line of view. Whenever he had an exhausting day that was filled with activities of pulling pranks on the unsuspecting villagers and running away from their scolds and shouts at him, Uzumaki Naruto would spend the rest of his evenings seated at the top of the Stone Hokage Faces, particularly the Fourth Hokage's face, as he allowed himself to enjoy the sight of the sun as it disappeared into the horizon in a land far, far, away from him. At times, Naruto stretched out his hand and traced the movement of the sun as it descended across the sky, wondering what lay in the land beyond. He thought that maybe, there lay a place where he would be treated better than he was by the residents of what was supposed to be his home village, for a reason unbeknownst to him. He cursed lightly as he remembered being shunned and glared at by the adults as he passed through the streets of Konoha, minding his own business. From his vantage point, he could see the Leaf Village in all its galore, making out the most important buildings, and with a small smile, spotting his favorite soft spot, Ichiraku Ramen. He opened his mouth in amazement as he wondered who had managed to create such a wonderful place, before resolving to himself that he would one day have his face etched into mountain surface he was currently seated on._

His mind shifting back to the present, he lowered his head lightly and allowed himself a small smile, after realizing just how far he had come from that small, annoying kid, to someone who was loved and respected by all in the village. He patted himself on the back for never giving up on his dream since that day and working towards it day in, day out, without ever allowing him a moment's hesitation. Luckily, the blonde girl who had his hand in her own did not notice his gesture at that moment. As Naruto lifted his head again to catch a glimpse of the back of the Yamanaka, a strange thought came into his head, which she was probably taking him to the spot that he frequented as a child. For a second, the thought seemed to hold some logic in it; however, since he could not find any reason to validate it, he decided to dismiss it and not to think of the matter anymore.

Unknowingly to him, however, the thoughts that he had just dismissed were running through Ino's head at the moment. Of course, she knew something that Naruto did not; smiling to her since she knew it would make the surprise all the more worthwhile.

The truth of the matter was, Yamanaka Ino had once stumbled upon the blonde boy atop the Mountain when she was of the same age as him, in their childhood years, but back then, she was the only one who had spotted him.

" _Father, is there anyone who lives on top of the Mountain where Hokage-sama's face has been put?" Ino asked her dad innocently, recently having taken a trip around the village being guided by her dad and mom. It was her first time going around the village ever since she had come of age where she could join the Academy and be instructed on being a Ninja, and her dad could remember how she had giggled endlessly upon seeing many buildings, resident homes and business areas alike._

 _Her father, who currently had his darling daughter in his lap, as they both enjoyed the view of the sunset from a spot outside the Yamanaka household, suppressed a chuckle. He had not expected such a simplistic question from his daughter, but then again, it seemed like a plausible question to ask, considering her still ripe age. "Why do you ask, Ino-chan?" He asked his daughter affectionately, wondering what response he would get from her._

 _The young girl looked at her father with her blue eyes, ever portraying the innocence she held as a child, and answered," Well, I just thought, the faces of the Hokages have been built on a mountain ledge, right? That's a really big section of land that has been left like that, so I wondered whether there was anyone who lived on top of that large area."_

 _Inoichi could not suppress the slight smile that graced his features at that point. Leave it to his daughter to ask such an intellectually stimulating question, which portrayed how much she had given the matter thought. He remembered fondly being told by the girl's homeroom teacher, Umino Iruka that Ino was an exceptionally bright girl, and in a few years to come she would graduate as one of the best students of the Academy. Seeing his girl displaying her obvious puzzlement at such a matter, he felt a surge of pride welling up in him, and smiled fondly at his angel, before proceeding to answer her._

" _That's a really good question, sweetheart. Let's see, well, there is no one who lives on top of the mountain, unfortunately, since the only one who lives nearest to it is Hokage-sama. His office is just below the Mountain, so I would say he's the only one who lives next to it!"_

 _The young girl's face frowned in disappointment, her childhood fantasies of someone living on top of the Mountain, where he could watch over all the villagers, crushed in an instant. Inoichi did not lose sight of the saddened expression on her face, and realized that he had just handed her a harsh dose of reality. Children her age were all like this, so well her behavior wasn't exactly out of the ordinary. However, as the question his daughter just asked resurfaced in his mind, he remembered something grave that he was supposed to have told his girl. Most probably, she had heard it from the other villagers, but still, it would not hurt to perform extra caution. It was an unspoken rule in the village after all, after that tragic incident that happened 9 years back._

" _Ino dear, I want you to listen to me very carefully," the older man started, and his daughter lifted her face upward to look into her father's green eyes. They held a stern expression at the present, which worried her a little. Adjusting herself on his lap so she sat in a position where she could see him properly and pay him all her attention, Ino waited to hear what her father would tell her. Inoichi, now sure that his daughter was paying him her fullest attention, continued," You aren't supposed to go anywhere near the top of that mountain, okay?" Ino made a slightly confused expression, prompting her father to continue with his explanation. "Make sure you go nowhere near the top of that Mountain. If you do, bad things will happen to you."_

" _Why, Father?" The young girl asked curiously. Children had an annoying penchant of being overly curious about anything and everything._

 _For a moment, in Yamanaka Inoichi's mind, the face of a young blonde boy, who had whiskers on his face, surfaced, and he remembered that he had been revealed to by the Hokage, alongside a few other shinobi, that the young boy was the host to the plague that had raided the village a while back, The Nine Tailed Fox. The news had come as a shock to Yamanaka Inoichi at first, since he did not imagine how such a vile beast would be contained in the body of an infant. Then again, Namikaze Minato was a man who had been hailed as one of a kind, meaning he had probably sealed the beast somehow within the body of a boy who strikingly resembled him. The Third Hokage had advised the villagers who knew the truth of what had transpired that night to hold the matter in utmost secrecy, and continue to carry on with their lives as they always had._

 _This turned out to be an extremely tall order by the old man. Most of the Shinobi who were present when he revealed the truth of the incident to them had lost loved ones and families as they tried to fight back the beast, and such wounds took forever to heal. It would prove to be a mountain's task for them to treat the beast's vessel as a normal kid, knowing that the source of all their agony was sealed within him. It was the same case with the other villagers. They were of course, not allowed to met out physical retribution to the kid, since doing so would only invoke the Hokage's wrath upon them, so the best they could do was merely stigmatize him. And stigmatize him they did._

 _Yamanaka Inoichi, along with a set few others, did not agree with the way they harshly alienated the boy, but they could not do anything about it. In case he decided to do something different, there was a chance that the villagers would turn their anger towards him, treating him as one who sympathized with the cursed child. His daughter would definitely suffer the same if she learnt the truth of the circumstances, so he wanted to spare her that burden, at the very least. In time, she would come to light of the truth herself, and at that point, he was sure she would make the right decision._

 _Ino listened to her father's advice keenly; taking note of the serious tone he had used when advising her, and nodded brusquely in agreement. Inoichi felt a wave of relief wash over him at that, and then allowed his daughter to get off his lap and head into the dining room for dinner. Unknown to him, however, he had just injected his daughter with a whole new feeling of curiosity. As the young girl trudged on the wooden steps in her house, she could not help but wonder what her father was warning her against that lay on the geographical feature which overlooked Konoha._

 _With these unsettling thoughts in the young girl's mind, the next day after school, she silently made her way to the Stone Faces, choosing not to indulge anyone with what she was planning to do. Not even her best friend at that moment, Haruno Sakura. It was a long way to the top of the Mountain, and luckily for the girl, there were no ANBU posted around that area of the village. Once she had reached the summit, she was completely out of breath, owing to the strenuous journey to reach that point, and she allowed herself a moment to catch a breath as she held her hand to her chest, with her head lowered in exhaustion. After what seemed like five minutes of exhaling a large volume of air, the blonde girl slowly lifted her head upwards, when she saw him._

 _A boy, who seemed to be the same age as her, was seated at the edge of one of the stone faces, both his arms placed at his sides as he had his eyes set on the village below him. His legs hang on the other side of the stone monument, and he seemed to be endorsed in his own thoughts, as he still had not realized that there was someone behind him at that point, much to Ino's relief. At first, Ino found herself wondering who the strange boy was, before a wave of realization hit her. She recognized the familiar matt of blonde hair that lay atop the boy's head, and the orange top he was clad in, putting one and one together and coming to the conclusion that this was a boy from her class, Uzumaki Naruto._

 _She had only caught glimpses of him here and there within the Academy grounds, and at first she realized she may have jumped to conclusions to soon. Then again, there was no one who had that striking color of hair within their class, so her choices at that moment were oddly limited. She had not exactly thought much about him, however, but she realized that most of the times she saw him he was usually alone, away from the company of the other students. Ino wondered just what made him different from the others, and while caught in this maelstrom of thoughts, she unconsciously stepped on a stone that was beneath her feet at that moment. The stone cracked under the pressure of her foot, alerting the boy to her presence and a shocked Ino to the blunder she had just made. Instinctively, she immediately dashed down the flight of stairs she had come from, not allowing herself to hesitate for a second lest the boy caught sight of her. Her mind screaming at her in embarrassment, she went all the way back to her house, leaving a bewildered Uzumaki Naruto at the top of the tower, who dumbly stared at the empty space that was previously occupied by the girl._

 _Yamanaka Ino never returned to that spot again ever since that day._

Slowly delving out of her memories regarding that surprisingly eventful day, Ino was surprised to find herself at the foot of the Mountain. Surprising her a little with how they had reached here a tad sooner than she had expected, she placed one foot on the stair at the very bottom, tugging Naruto's hand and making sure that he followed suit behind her. Of course, the boy behind her had been surprised to find out that this was indeed Ino's original destination, his earlier random thought resurfacing as he wondered why she still chose this spot. His face was a mixture of confusion and eagerness as they ascended the stone steps heading to the top of the monument, but he realized he had come too far to go back home right now.

The two walked upwards in continued silence, Naruto growing increasingly uncomfortable with how the air around them seemed ever tense with each step he took. Finally, they had reached the summit of his favorite view spot as a kid, and he was hit by a sudden wave of nostalgia as he took in the air at the top of the mountain. The place had not changed the slightest bit in all the years he had been away from it, and Naruto was glad to see that it was still in top condition. Silently thanking the Third and the Fifth, who saw to the fact that this place was kept spick and span as part of their duties as village leaders, he suddenly found himself looking out towards the village he always watched as a kid. Time really flew fast.

Still caught up in his fond nostalgic memories, his hand was tugged again for what would be the last time that day, as the blonde girl slowly led him to the top of the Fourth Hokage's face. She then released his hand slowly, and gracefully proceeded to sit upon the Yellow Flash's face structure, before silently watching the descending sun in the horizon. It was still the wee hours of the evening, so Ino realized that she still had some time with which she could talk to the boy next to her. Naruto looked at the girl uncertainly, wondering what she expected him to do, before she slowly tapped the area next to her. Taking that as a cue that he was allowed to seat next to her, the taller man proceeded to make he comfortable, the same mannerisms he had as a kid. He had to admit it felt a bit weird being seated in such a place at the moment, not entirely due to Ino's unexpected presence, of course, but since this time, he was aware of his identity as the Fourth Hokage's son. He had recently been able to see his father within his conscience after he willingly allowed the Nine Tails to take over his body till the point where he sprouted the Eighth Tail, and the moment still left spasms of delight within him.

The blonde girl next to him shifted her sitting position to edge closer to the Village Hero, and was now in a position where she could feel the warmth emanating from his body. Likewise, the blonde boy next to her could feel the warmth emanating from his female counterpart's body, and was brought out of his gleeful thoughts to the reality of the awkward position that he had currently found himself in. He was suddenly aware of how dangerously close they were, his mind thrown into disarray since he could not remember ever enjoying a moment like this with the Yamanaka girl with whom he now shared his company. The two of them had never shared a special moment like this in the past, and the realization of this fact made Naruto wonder if she was up to something with her unusual treatment of him. Not to say that Ino had exactly treated him wrongly in the past, but well, she had never exactly shown him the attention she was displaying towards him currently.

Perhaps this was the result of some weird bet made between her and her teammates, or Kiba for that matter. Naruto felt himself getting irate at the thought of this. Still, it wasn't exactly unwarranted for, since he, Kiba, Shikamaru and Choji all enjoyed each other's company when they were kids, and part of the enjoyment involved playing pranks on each other. Why they had involved Ino, he had no idea, and was not about to find out, since the girl beside him suddenly spoke up, effectively hating the tense atmosphere that had since surrounded them ever since they had reached this point.

"So, N-a-r-u-t-o….." Ino started, adding a certain sleaze to her voice that did not go unnoticed by the boy next to her, owing to the trail of sweat that made its way down the side of his face. The girl widened her eyes in amusement, and then restrained a chuckle that threatened to break out if she hadn't placed a hand over her mouth then. Honestly, his reaction just then was cute! Then again, Ino could understand a little of why he was so on edge at the moment, since if someone you hardly interacted with began showing an unusual amount of interest in you one day, the behavior would definitely strike you as odd. With that knowledge in mind, however, the girl intended to make him feel as comfortable as possible within her presence, so as not to put him off with her first attempts at charming him. At that moment, however, Ino realized how tricky it would be wooing Uzumaki Naruto, the boy she had recently developed as crush on.

Yamanaka Ino was not the kind of girl to let any feelings she experienced wane without her trying anything. She had learned that it was better to live life without any regrets, no matter what the outcome of your decisions were.

The blonde boy next to her, who found himself progressively unnerved by Ino's straightforward gesture just then, felt a flurry of thoughts zigzagging through his mind. He had to do something in order to gain control of the situation at hand, he thought, as his mind desperately began clutching for straws, something he could say to abate the current dilemma he had found himself in. As he was about to give in, however, a thought suddenly popped up in his mind. His face lightened up as he remembered the issue that had plagued him once he had left the confines of his home that morning. Yes, he thought, that would work perfectly.

"Ne, Ino," he started, his confidence increasing with each word that exited his palate at that moment," Can I ask you something about Sakura?" He completed his reply, his voice a tad confident than it had been earlier when he had been asking about their destination earlier. Once he was done asking, he realized, with growing satisfaction, that the question was not weird, or odd, by all accounts. It was a perfectly rational question to ask, since the girl next to him happened to be the pink-haired girl's best friend.

The girl next to him wore a mask of confusion on her face for a while, before she managed to recompose herself and exhale a little. Well, he certainly had caught her off-guard with that sudden inquiry, she thought. She had not expected him to ask her about her best friend off the bat like that, but well she realized that Sakura was probably one of the things that constantly lingered within Naruto's mind. The bright expression that had been on her face moments earlier dulled a little, as she realized that Naruto still held feelings for the girl, owing to the way in which he watched out for her. Her heart sunk a little and she felt a slight feeling of defeat in the depths of her guts, but she immediately ridded herself of such negative feelings.

After all, she realized, she had definitely signed up for this when she had decided to set her eyes on Naruto. She, as well as her teammates, and a handful of people within the village, were aware of the affections that Naruto held for his teammate, so she realized a long while ago that any girl who tried to win him over would definitely be in for a Herculean task. At that moment, however, she had never imagined that one day she would be contesting for her heart, so she allowed herself to smile a little at how ironic life was sometimes. These thoughts however, served to further the resolve she had set within herself, so she steeled her heart and decided not to give up that easily. If she let herself be impeded by such an obstacle, Ino realized that she could not take pride in herself as a woman.

"Sure Naruto, you can. What do you want to know about Sakura specifically?" The blonde girl asked, the cheerfulness that had been in her voice earlier slowly returning to her and expressing itself via her voice. Yes, she was not going to give up so easily. She was Yamanaka Ino after all!

Beside her, Naruto, who was now relieved since he had eliminated most of the nervousness he had been feeling prior to coming there. Assured that he was now in control of the flow of the conversation, he pressed on, hoping that he would get a favorable answer this time. Kakashi had not been much help in helping Naruto seek out the answer he wanted, taking the opportunity he had been offered to torment Naruto's mind with images which still remained etched in a small part of his mind. However, he was almost fully convinced that it would be completely different with Ino. After all, there was probably no one else in Konoha who knew Sakura as well as she did, so he was sure she would help him completely. To add the icing on top, she was also there, along the rest of the village, as they witnessed Sakura embracing Naruto, so he knew that he would not be talking about an entirely alien concept to her.

He slowly took in a breath of fresh air, before bracing himself to ask her," When Sakura-chan hugged me after I got back to the village, what did she mean by that? I've been wondering since then whether there was any underlying message within her gesture just then."

Yamanaka Ino's mouth was slightly open in surprise and sheer astonishment, as for the second time that day, Naruto had managed to catch her completely off guard with a question of that magnitude. Of all the questions that she had expected Naruto to ask regarding his female teammate, this had definitely not been on her list. And it wasn't even supposed to be! She was well aware, as a girl, that whenever a guy asked a girl's best friend something about a girl he was interested in, normally the guy would ask about small, minuscule things such as the girl's birthday, or her hobbies, in an attempt to surprise the girl. Ino had found such attempts at wooing girls boorish, but here, Naruto was asking about a gesture that had been expressed to him by Sakura, something which genuinely puzzled him. Ino felt a sudden wave of admiration within her towards Naruto, immediately realizing that he was different from other guys. Way different.

Then again, true to what Naruto had said, Ino had definitely watched the moment that Sakura had hugged Naruto, unknowingly displaying her show of affection for him before all the villagers. She had been surprised by the boldness her best friend had exhibited in that moment, plus the target of her actions just then. In all her years of spending time with Sakura and getting to know her, Ino had come to the conclusion that Sakura would reserve intimate acts, such as hugs, and kisses, for one raven haired Uchiha. It was the same case with Ino, of course, since both girls yearned for Sasuke ever since their childhood days. She had even witnessed Sakura hug Sasuke, albeit from the back and in order to stop his rampage, when they were in the Chuunin Exams within the Forest of Death. Back then, she was moved by Sakura's bravery in hugging Sasuke, who was currently on a rampage throughout the battlefield, and had come to the observation that her heart was with Sasuke. That was, till the incident with Naruto happened. This led Ino to a dilemma of sorts, since she could not understand what her best friend was feeling at the moment, both in regards to Naruto and Sasuke.

She was not about to let Naruto know that she herself had also been surprised by Sakura's gesture just then. However, there was still something that she could do for him, no matter how unpleasant it would be for her, and largely shocking to him. Her eyes closed, she extricated herself from the ground, and walked a few steps backwards away from the edge of the mountain. Naruto, who watched her movements, wondered whether she was planning to leave the mountain and subsequently him atop there, before he saw her stop a few feet away from him. Ino, who had her back turned to him, turned to face him, then ushered him with a single glance to join her at her current position.

He slowly got off his feet, unsure of what the girl had in mind this time, but nevertheless placing his trust in her. He slowly walked towards her till he was at an even level with her, before looking down at her with his cerulean orbs. She looked surprisingly pretty from such a close point.

Ino, who was currently fiddling with her hands as she looked at the man who was standing before her, steeled her resolve once more then looked up into his blue orbs with her equally blue eyes. She could feel his warm breath on her, and it made a tingling sensation make its way up her spine. This wasn't the type to be caught up in such distracting thoughts, she thought, shaking her head slightly to focus on what she was supposed to be doing currently.

"Naruto."

"Yes?" The boy replied, still unsure of what Ino was planning to do.

"What I'm about to do may be a bit shocking at first, but I want you to trust me, okay? Then you'll tell me what you think about it once I'm done," Ino explained to him, making sure he heard every word that she had just uttered.

"Okay then….I'll trust you, Ino," Naruto replied, feeling his heartbeat increase steadily since he was not sure of what was going to happen. Still, it was not like she was going to draw out a kunai then stab him from point-blank range, right? It couldn't possibly be that bad.

It was something he would not have been ready for in a hundred years.

Slowly, Ino stretched out her hands before her, wrapping them gently around the bigger boy's torso, encasing him in a hug. At that point, all the blood in Naruto's body had rushed to his cheeks, and a faint blush adorned them. Of course, the same had happened to the girl that was presently hugging him, that moment being her first time ever hugging a man, and surprisingly, it felt….warm. However, she shook these distracting thoughts out of her head for what seemed to be the umpteenth time that day and mentally praising her for what seemed to be an especially daunting task at first.

Naruto, however, was not quite as calm as her. When he had realized that Ino had her arms around him, he had half a mind to squirm around and shake her off him. Luckily enough he had managed to calm him down before he resorted to doing something that foolish. He could feel his heart beating thunderously within his ribcage, making a small wish that the girl below him would not catch wind of how he was extremely flustered at that moment. Some part of his mind, however, knew that it was probably a futile, owing to the way she had rested her head on his chest. It was Naruto Uzumaki's second hug within a period of less than a week, something he noted with a sinking feeling in his gut. His arms flailed aimlessly for a while on his sides at first, but not knowing how to respond to this sudden act out of the blue, decided to not do anything at all and just allow himself to relish the moment. However, a small part of him told him that something about this just didn't feel right.

The two stood there in extended silence, enjoying the warmth emanating from each other's bodies, before Ino slowly extracted her hands from the small of Naruto's back. She then placed her hands behind her, her gaze cast to the floor, struggling to recompose herself enough in order to regain control of the awkward situation which she had just triggered. It proved extremely hard to do at the moment, since she was still aware of Naruto's looming presence over her. Her cheeks were still stained red and she willed her embarrassment to fade away. For a moment she was not sure whether she had done the right thing or not, but then at that moment, Naruto spoke up. His eyes held a dazed look in them, and he looked at the girl before him like a blind man seeing light for the first time.

"Ino, what was that for?" He asked, a hint of curiosity stemming from his voice. Whilst he was now in the green regarding what she had been struggling with doing before she hugged him, he realized all the nervousness he had been feeling earlier had all but disappeared. In its place was an overwhelming sense of curiosity.

Ino weakly rose her head to meet his whiskered face, noting with a surprised look that he still had a dazed look in his eyes. It was a cute look. She smiled under her breath, then drew back a breath before replying," What does it look like, idiot? I hugged you," her voice betrayed the butterflies that had erupted from her stomach when she embraced him, so she struggled to steady her tone. Naruto did not realize this, his mind still trying to wrap it around what his friend had done.

"Uh-huh. I could tell that by looking," he replied dumbly. "I meant why did you do that?" He inquired, his voice having returned to its usual tone. His heartbeat had also steadied in his chest, and he took that to be a positive sign.

"Well, as I said earlier, I wanted you to trust me on what I was going to do, and I'm glad you did," Ino started, feeling thankful that Naruto had at least trusted her for a moment there. She continued, "Then I told you to give me your honest opinion regarding what I had just done. So, let me have it!" She completed her sentence, glad that the tone of her voice had resumed to its usual boisterous nature. She heaved a sigh of relief at that, before focusing her gaze to Naruto, eagerly awaiting a response.

"It felt…awkward, to be honest," Naruto started, truthfully, and Ino felt a vein pop on her forehead. How dare him! After she put herself out there like that. From the tone of his voice, however, she could tell that he was not quite done yet, so she let him finish his statement before deciding to call him off for being inconsiderate of a girl's feelings. "And a bit uncomfortable." Oh, he was so going to get it now! Ino gritted her teeth in irritation, at Naruto's ungratefulness, but he still seemed like he was not quite done, so she let him finish his statement. He tilted his head to one side in thought, his hands folded at his chest, before he completed his remarks," But, well, I kind of liked it." At this he smiled a bit nervously to Ino, his arm rubbing the back of his head to reveal the slight embarrassment he had felt at the last part of the statement.

The pent up anger that Ino had been feeling all ebbed away as soon as it had began welling up in her, and this time, as hard as she tried, she could not suppress a chuckle. She brought her hand to her mouth in an act of amusement, and laughed under her breath for a short amount of time. Once she had recomposed herself, however, she turned to her blonde counterpart, slowly raising her hand to his chest and punching him playfully. "Well what do you know…so you do have some delicacy after all!" She expressed gleefully to him, flashing him a trademark smile of her own. Naruto had to admit she had a pretty cute smile.

"Why did you ask for my opinion though, I mean on the hug?" Naruto inquired again, having gotten the better of his embarrassment. He still had not figured out what Ino was heading with all this, nor did he have the slightest clue.

"Okay, you see what I just did, right? Sakura did the same thing to you, so what did you feel when she hugged you back then?"

It was Naruto's turn to be astonished, as he had not expected the blonde girl to ask him a question of such magnitude. He felt his cheeks turn beet red again for the second time that day, then he flailed his hands before him in protest as he tried to work a way out of the situation. It was hopeless; however, as Ino fixed him with a stern glare, showing him that there was no way he was getting out of this one. Realizing this, he closed his eyes as he recomposed himself, trying to remember the distant feeling that had remained imprinted on his body since that moment. He could still remember the feel of Sakura's slender arms on his muscular ones, the feel of her head as she rested it on his shoulder, and her warm cheeks next to his face. A warm feeling of joy began welling up inside him, and unknowingly, a tender smile began forming itself on his features, which did not go unnoticed by Ino, of course.

"It felt really warm. And comfortable, just like home," he replied bashfully, his face beaming with excitement. Ino could not help but let out a small giggle as she watched him getting excited by his own memories. He was definitely an odd case, this Uzumaki Naruto. Yet at the same time, she found herself growing increasingly fascinated with him. The feelings scared her a little, but she could not deny the excitement she was feeling due to them.

"Well, at least you remembered that," she said to him, before adding on," but with that just now you realized the difference between what you felt when I hugged you, and when Sakura did, right?" Naruto nodded at this in affirmation, and then she continued," So what's left is going to ask her what she felt about the hug."

"Eh?" Naruto replied in a dumbfounded manner, unsure of whether he had heard Ino say the right thing. He stared at her in disbelief, wondering whether he had misheard her, but she still looked at him in that stern manner, showing him that he had definitely heard right. He felt a cold sweat break out on his body at this suggestion, since he had never thought about doing it in the first place.

 _Sakura's place_

The pink haired girl was currently in her shower, washing the dirt of her body from an extended day at the hospital, where she had been tending to the wounded shinobi who had been left in the wake of Pain's assault. She had been completely exhausted that day, as she scrubbed herself clean, the water draining away all her fatigue. At that point, however, a certain image suddenly surfaced in her mind, and with it, a single tear dropped from her eye, sucked into the water that was currently at her feet.

 **A/N:** I could go on writing, but well I decided to cut it short here, and leave the rest for the next chapter. I hope this was an okay chapter. Make sure to read and review. Thank you!


	4. Chains of The Past

**Chapter 4**

 **Chains of The Past**

The two blondes that had been previously atop the Hokage Monument were now en route back to the village, the sun having sunk into the distant horizon already. The day was slowly giving birth to the night, meaning that most of the activity in the village was also snuffing out alongside the dying day. The same could also be said for the mood of one Uzumaki Naruto, his face currently contorted into a frown since things had not gone along the way he had intended them to. As he walked a bit irritated, his hands folded on his chest and his gaze focused on the girl ahead of him, who was not holding his hand this time, he remembered with disappointment how the rest of the day had been anticlimactic.

Yamanaka Ino, who walked ahead of him with certain nervousness in her step, shot a glance backwards to satiate her growing doubts over Naruto's current mood. True to what she had been worried about for a while now, the boy she had been with for the rest of the day was still not in a happy mood, and she had a funny feeling she knew the reason why. Giggling nervously, she felt a drop of sweat make its way down her forehead as she attempted to make the situation better.

"Hey, cheer up will you? I already said I was sorry I made you miss your chance," an idea popped in her mind and she immediately latched onto it," Look! I said to make it up for you I would escort you home! Is there anything that could possibly beat that?" She allowed herself an inward smile at what she thought was a valid penance, but the stern look on Naruto's face did not even seem to be fazed. Dismayed, the blonde girl refocused her gaze ahead of her, deciding that it would be better to continue the rest of the trip to Naruto's home in silence.

 _The truth of the matter was, ever since Ino had made that bold move on Naruto earlier on the mountain as she attempted to make things clear to him regarding his dilemma with Sakura, the two had not descended the mountain till a few minutes ago. Of course, once Naruto had received a pat on the back from the blonde girl, he had been more than willing at that point to go and see Sakura immediately and ask her what he wanted to know. However, before he could make quick on his plans, Ino asked him for a teensy weensy favor, with the cutest expression she could muster. She asked Naruto to spend the rest of the day with her on top of the mountain, and keep him company until the evening. The blonde man was hesitant at first, asking Ino whether he really needed to be there for such a trivial event, but she insisted that since it was her first time at the Monument since forever and it would probably be a long time till she went there again, she wanted it to be special. Besides, she added on, such things were more special when they were done with others._

 _Naruto looked at her unsurely, pondering over whether it would not take too much of his time, but seeing no harm in staying a few moments longer with someone who had helped him out earlier, decided to keep her company a bit longer. Like that, the two sat at the edge like they had the first time they had come there, engaging in idle chatter and talking of things that would help pass the time. Unfortunately, however, Uzumaki Naruto was not one to engage in one activity for a long time, especially if the activity involved staying in one place, so after what seemed to be an hour, his eyes began feeling heavy. Unresisting, he gave in to the impulse and allowed himself to doze off, but luckily, before he could tip over to the other side, Ino managed to catch on his unusual silence a few seconds earlier and caught him. She was surprised to have found him dozed off, but she mused to herself that she had probably not offered enough conversation to keep him lively the whole time, feeling slightly displeased by herself. As she stared upon his peaceful resting form, taking special note of how he looked so cute in that state, she smiled a little to herself, then slowly, so as not to wake him, she placed his head on her lap, where he continued to nap, his chest heaving slowly upwards and downwards. She stroked his hair a few times, as she looked upon the setting sun, wishing moments like that happened more often._

 _A few minutes later, after the sun had completely disappeared, Naruto woke up with a start, at first wondering where he was. He caught on what had transpired; mentally berating himself for not waking up in time, but more than that, he was angry that Ino had not woke him up. The girl, half expecting this reaction from him the moment he got up, realized that she may have gotten too carried away in the bliss she had been enjoying moments earlier, apologizing to him and offering to escort him home herself. She knew as well as he did that it would not bode well to go see Sakura at that ungodly hour of the day, so the best Naruto would do was wait till the beginning of the following day._

As she remembered what had brought on this slightly distant treatment from Naruto at the moment, Ino felt slightly embarrassed as she realized that she might have been a bit selfish back then. Luckily for her, however, Naruto had not exactly noticed the position he had woken up in, so she had been able to try something she had never had with any other boy in the past. She prayed that more chances like that would offer themselves to her soon, realizing that if they did she would welcome them with open arms like she had just done.

A sound of creaking wood brought her to the realization that she had arrived at her destination with her comrade, looking down to find herself stepping on the wooden floor that led up to his room. A feeling of dismay washed over her, since she had not expected the trip to take that short, but then again, she was not sure if she would have been comfortable walking with someone who made no visible attempt at a conversation for a long amount of time. She walked up the stairs to Naruto's home, looking back to find him doing the same, but unfortunately he had not seemed to have dropped his slightly saddened mood. With things like this, how was she even supposed to tell him goodbye?

Once she had made way for Naruto to open his door, she lingered a few moments longer at his doorstep as she mentally looked for a way that she could part with him on a good note. To her surprise however, he took one step in the house then turned back at her, this time the hint of a smile on his face, before telling her," Thanks, Ino. For everything." Ino widened her eyes in surprise, momentarily forgetting about what she had been pondering about earlier, looking at the blonde man before her in shock. What had happened to the expression he had sported earlier? Struggling to form a coherent sentence, she opened her mouth, disbelief showing in her words," Wait, what for? I made you miss your chance!" She nearly protested, and for a moment she thought that he was trying to sweep his disappointment under the rug. The thought of this made Ino slightly irate. There was no way she was going to allow him to do that.

"Well, you did," Naruto started, keeping his cerulean eyes on Ino's sky blue ones, "but I was thinking about it as we were walking here. You helped me to know what I was supposed to do next, so it would be unfair of me to hold a grudge over something so simple. Besides, I'm not exactly in a rush to find out. So I might as well go see Sakura-chan tomorrow! It's not a big deal as I made it out to be in the first place. Sorry I acted that way," he concluded his statement, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly in a show of apology. Ino took in each word he was saying, realizing the sincerity they carried, and allowed her to calm down as she shot him a warm smile. The small falling out they had had earlier now seemed a thing of the past, and Ino felt a bit silly for worrying herself over it. However, even after all had been said and done, there was still one thing she needed to do, a sly smile forming on her lips as she looked upon the unknowing man before her.

Taking one step ahead of her, and catching Naruto completely by surprise, Ino stood on her toes so as to reach his face, and then placed a small kiss on his cheek. Naruto himself was astonished, as the kiss sent a tingling sensation throughout his entire body, but still feeling the girl's warmth awfully close to him, he had a feeling she was not quite done. And true to that, he felt her warm breath on his ear, this time sending a fuzzy feeling throughout him.

"I'm not giving up just yet," Ino whispered in Naruto's ear, and feeling him slightly twitch next to her left her feeling amused at his antics.

Lowering herself back to her normal height, Ino closed her eyes then began walking away from the door, leaving a slightly befuddled man in her wake. Naruto stared at nothing for a few moments, as his mind struggled to process what had just happened. The growing distant sound of Ino's footsteps brought him back to the reality that the blonde woman was departing, and he took a step out of the house to call out for her. Ino, however, had a feeling what he was about to do, so beating him to the punch, she told him, with what was a finalizing tone," Goodnight." She never looked back, keeping her eyes still closed in bliss and her arms at her back, as she felt pleased at herself for what she had managed to accomplish that day.

 _One Hour Earlier_

 _Haruno Sakura was currently in her shower, the descending water washing over all the fatigue and weariness she had accumulated throughout the day. She was also deep in thought, as she pondered over all that had transpired so far, more specifically what had happened the previous day._

 _The pink haired girl was practically still in disbelief, as she remembered how she had boldly, and in front of all the peering eyes of the villagers, welcomed Naruto back into the village by hugging him. Back then she had barely given the action any thought, realizing how more than happy she was to see him return well and okay, but now, in the solace of her own home, she found herself wondering what had spurred on her actions back then. She simply churned it to having simply not being in control of her actions back then. As she brought her fingers to her face, the water slowly running through them, she realized that she could still remember how warm he had felt under her fingers, how her small fingers placed themselves on his large back. The vivid feeling brought a warm feeling to her cheeks, making her feel rapidly embarrassed, and she quickly withdrew them from her gaze, realizing that her cheeks were still in that warm state._

 _In the midst of her embarrassment, however, she realized just how pleased she had felt over what she had done back then. She harbored no regrets over what had happened, and realized that even if she had been under the watch of everyone, she did not mind it a single bit._

 _Then again, when the deal was too good, such as in such instances, one had to simply think twice. Sakura realized that no matter how hard she tried, she could not simply banish her memories over what had happened prior to her embracing of Naruto. No, it happened even before he had left the village to go and meet Nagato. The Medic could remember quite clearly how a certain lavender haired girl had bravely confessed to Naruto in the middle of his fight with Pain, even going so far as to fight for him for a while before she had been brutally defeated by the Akatsuki Leader. Sakura of course had been there to heal her moments later, bringing her out of harm's way, but when she caught wind of what she did, she realized that she was not exactly happy. She found herself slightly envious of the girl, as she pondered herself whether she would ever be able to do something of that magnitude for Naruto._

 _The pink haired girl knew full well that she was not supposed to be feeling that way, comforting herself with the fact that she had been there for Naruto in her own way for the longest time, even longer than anyone else, but as the water covered her entire body, she found herself wondering whether it was enough._

 _She caught her arm, feeling something course its way throughout her body, as she questioned herself as to when she had started feeling that way for Naruto. A small tear escaped her cheek and melded with the water on the ground, as she came to the conclusion that she was slowly growing to feel the same way for him that Hinata had. Perhaps she had been feeling this way for a while now, but she had been oblivious to her own feelings, and seeing Hinata doing what she had did back then had brought her full circle to what she felt about Naruto. Her heart was currently in turmoil, as she thought to herself whether this was what it felt like to love someone._

 _At the mention of the word love in her mind, her thoughts drifted away from the lavender haired girl and came to rest upon a certain raven haired Uchiha. Uchiha Sasuke had been someone she had loved in her youth, someone she had pined for and someone she had hoped to one day win over with her charms. As she pondered over the man, she found herself thinking over the feelings she had for him back then. Were they really true? She had said to him once that she had loved him, and told herself several times on each waking day that she loved him, but then again, had she really known herself back then what the word love truly entailed? Like she did now? Naruto had managed to cause these new feelings to sprout in her, something she realized had never happened with Sasuke._

 _Perhaps she had not known fully what the word had meant back then, but Sakura realized, with a small sinking feeling in her chest, that perhaps even now, a small part of her heart still beat for Sasuke. She was not sure exactly herself how that had happened, but then again, it were difficult moving on from someone without getting a proper final resolution on your feelings for them. And that had happened with Sasuke, since he had said nothing to her last-ditch attempt to dissuade him from leaving the village, saying a simple 'Thank You' to her tear-filled confession. Was that supposed to mean something? She found herself wondering why these thoughts came to her now, and with a sickening feeling in her stomach, realized that she did not like it one bit. Her feelings for Naruto were growing into something she found did not displease her, something she found special and embracing whole-heartedly, but here an old part of her was still in love with Sasuke. The mere thought of it made her feel like a terrible, and a second tear threatened to spill out of her wet face, but she held it in and realized that crying over it was not going to solve the dilemma she was facing._

 _She stopped the running water and covered herself with a towel, and exited the bathroom, surprised to find that the moon had already crept over the land. She had lingered in the shower longer than she had expected, but then again, it was due to good reason. As she made her way to her room to get herself a change of clothes for the night, she found herself musing over how Hinata probably loved Naruto with all her heart, and that she didn't have to be so fidgety with her feelings like how Sakura was at the moment. The pink haired girl felt herself growing increasingly green with envy over the lavender haired girl, and slowly growing to hate how she was feeling at the moment as well, but as she changed into her favorite set of pajamas and placated herself over her bed, she resolved to put a stop to how she was feeling at the moment. Her mind was already set over Naruto, so she needed to do something first before she could proceed with whatever she had in mind already._

An hour later, realizing that it was becoming increasingly difficult to sleep owing to the maelstrom of emotions that had not offered her peace of mind ever since they had cropped up in her, Sakura heard a knock on her front door. She extricated herself from the top of her bed, wondering who it was that dared visit her at that time of the day, when most of the village was bound to be asleep. She walked to her door, curiosity welling up in her, and when she opened the door, she was surprised to find that it was her best friend, Yamanaka Ino.

"Ino?" The pink haired girl asked, and the blonde girl let herself into the house, surprising the Medic a bit more. She closed the door then turned to face her best friend, who had one arm on her waist as her eyes were focused on Sakura. "What are you doing here?" Sakura asked a bit unsurely, as she rested herself on her door, her arms on her chest.

"I came to check up on you," Ino stated in a matter of fact tone, but taking note of the grave expression ion her best friend's face, decided to continue, this time in an equally stern tone herself, "and I think I made the right call. What's wrong? Did I interrupt you in the middle of something?" She added on, her eyes darting around the house as she wondered whether Sakura had been engaged in something prior her untimely visit.

Sakura huffed, realizing that she had to get used to her best friend's straight forward nature by then, but feeling grateful that she had come at that moment. Sakura was not sure whether she would be able to carry out what she had in mind by herself, taking a small mental note that she probably needed to talk to someone with all that was plaguing her mind at the moment. And what better person to talk to than her best friend? It was by chance that she had come, but Sakura realized that if she did not take this chance, it might be too late to act later on. She focused her emerald eyes on her best friend's blue ones, and then told her, with a more confident voice this time," I'm glad you could come, Ino. I need your help with something."

Ino was surprised to hear her friend speak in such a manner, sensing a slightly pleading tone in her friend's voice, but surmised that what Sakura wanted help with was probably what had put her into such a mood in the first place. She nodded brusquely in response, and Sakura ushered her further into the house, taking her into the confines of her room where they could speak more privately and more comfortably.

Once inside, Sakura explained the entire situation to her best friend, the two seated on her warm bed, and Ino's expressions as she listened to her best friend's woes and worries were certainly not any to be scoffed at. Sakura's voice was a bit edgy throughout the whole time, placing special emphasis on each and everything she said so as to make sure that her best friend understood just what she was going through. Ino was shocked as Sakura concluded on her explanation, her eyes threatening to shot holes through Sakura, but the pink haired girl had an equally determined glare in her eyes as she looked at her best friend. She had a feeling Ino would react this way, or for that matter anyone if they heard of it, but if she faltered here, she would probably come to regret it sooner than later.

"So, what are you planning to do about all this?" Ino asked, once Sakura was done, in her heart fearing for what the pink haired girl was going to say next. Then again, there were only two probable things to do at such a moment, and for Kami's sake Ino prayed that her best friend would not pick any of them. It was simply too big of a risk.

Sakura, still retaining that determined look in her eyes, stilled her breath, and then told Ino, with as much determination as she could muster," I'm going to see Sasuke-kun."

 _I had a feeling she would choose to do that._ Ino thought, with a resounding feeling of disappointment, wondering why her best friend would make the harder choice of the two. She immediately began to protest, deciding that she would not let her best friend embark on such a dangerous decision. It was simply too much to risk. "Wait! What good will that do now?" As she voiced her protest, Ino realized, to a small extent, that she could somehow understand what Sakura was getting at, but then again, she had not expected her to act on her resolve so soon.

Sakura had of course expected her best friend's disapproval with her decision, but she had resolved to make her see the logic in what she had decided to go through with. It had sounded equally as bizarre to her as first as well, but the more she thought and thought of it, the more it seemed like the only way she was going to set things straight. She closed her eyes, taking in a whiff of fresh air, as she debated in her mind one last time over what she was going to say next was right. Her mind felt strangely serene at the moment, something it had not been for quite a while now, and she took it as a sign of reassurance that she was doing the right thing.

"I intend to start a relationship with Naruto," the pink haired girl stated boldly, revealing her desire to her best friend. Ino wowed softly underneath her breath, but Sakura continued, "For me to do that, I don't want to be chained down by anything in my past. Once I start dating him, the only thing I want to ever be concerned with is the present and the future, I never want to look back again and find myself dwelling over things that should have been long gone."

Slowly, but surely, Ino began understanding Sakura's point of view. It made perfect sense for any girl who had finally set her eyes on someone, but still, she didn't have to do something as dangerous as see Sasuke before she became Naruto's girlfriend. Was it really worth it? Surely there had to other ways for her to move on from the Uchiha for good without having to put her own life in danger right? The blonde girl realized that she still remained to be fully convinced, a small part of her still in arms over what Sakura had just told her," I know that, but still-"

This time, however, Ino was not going to be allowed to complete her retort, as almost immediately Sakura interrupted her, saying," If, just if, I decided to start dating Naruto as I am right now, the shadow of Sasuke-kun will be looming over me every time I'm with Naruto. That means that I would never be able to give my all in the relationship, something which I'm sure Naruto will be more than willing to do for me. If I ever found myself doing that, I would never be able to forgive myself."

To Sakura's satisfaction, this time Ino had not opted to chip in her own two cents, as she sat attentively on the bed and listened to her best friend keenly, her blue eyes never leaving her and one arm propped under her chin for support. Sakura smiled softly, then added," Even if by chance that didn't happen, and I was able to date Naruto contently and we were both happy together, what about when Sasuke-kun comes back? "Sakura paused a little, allowing herself to breath as she remembered how strongly she believed, when she had been a kid and even now, her faith never waning, that Naruto would definitely bring Sasuke back to the village. It was one of the many things she knew that he would achieve one day without fail, just as his dream of being Hokage. She continued, smiling inwardly at the image of the blonde man that had appeared in her mind," If he comes back, and I wasn't able to resolve anything before then, the feelings that lay dormant for Sasuke-kun might threaten to come back in a rush at me, and in a worst case scenario I might end up falling for him all over again. There's no way I could ever allow that to happen."

She paused again, thinking of how painful the expression on Naruto's face would be as he tried to cover it under a smile and told her to go to the one she loved, and she felt a part of her break at this thought. Her resolve deepened, and she realized that she was never going to allow herself to see that expression from Naruto. The mere thought of it was enough to break a small part of her, and she wasn't the least bit curious to learn what would happen if it actually did.

Her blonde best friend took in everything Sakura was saying, finally coming round to her best friend's words, and she remembered something her mom told her a while back. At the time, she thought the words sounded absurd, but seeing Sakura now, she realized that maybe, just maybe, and they weren't as ridiculous as they had sounded.

" _If you fall in love with two people at the same time, choose the second person, because if you truly loved the first, you would have never fallen for the second person."_

Perhaps this was what was happening to Sakura at the moment, as she was growing increasingly aware of her feelings for Naruto and slowly growing out of the girl she was in the past who loved Sasuke with every fiber of her being. It was proving a hard thing to do for the pink haired girl, what with her current turmoil, but she was trying her hardest, something Ino acknowledged, and she felt a surge of pride for her best friend.

Smiling outwardly at her, she chuckled a little, to Sakura's confusion, before finally telling her," Heh, you know you're really something. To go through with something like this, you're really brave, Sakura." Sakura's eyes widened, not expecting a compliment from Ino at that point, but this time it was Ino that prevented her from saying anything, musing to herself more than Sakura," You may have adopted some of Naruto's recklessness, you idiot."

Sakura had to hold back a laugh that threatened to break out, but she knew that Ino was probably right in regards to her last statement. Glad that her best friend had finally come round to her way of thinking, she felt satisfaction filling up her insides, as she was about to finally get to Ino's role in all what she had planned. Ino spoke up to her again, however, before she could get a word out, this time posing a question rather than a statement," When are you planning to leave?"

"Tomorrow morning," Sakura said, her mind already made up that she needed to do this as soon as possible, which was the next day. The sooner she handled it, the better. At this response, however, a memory prodded at Ino's mind, as she remembered that upon her parting with Naruto that evening, he had promised that he would go see Sakura the following day, yet the pink haired girl was planning to leave by then. The blue eyes girl chose not to speak of the matter, realizing that it was probably not in her place to speak of such an important matter to Naruto. Sakura,realized that Ino's silence meant she had no objection to her chosen time of departure, decided to continue and tell her just what she required her assistance with.

"And that's where I need your help, Ino. I want you to stay with Naruto and take care of him while I'm gone," Sakura said, her voice coming out in form of a plea.

Surprised was an understatement for what the blonde girl was feeling at the moment. She was bewildered! For Sakura to make such a request, she had seriously given the matter more thought that Ino had originally thought. Opening her mouth weakly, she muttered at Sakura, finding herself disbelieving of the request that she had just bestowed upon her," Just what do you mean by that?" After all, Ino knew just as well as Sakura that Naruto was fully capable of taking care of himself just fine without any of them around.

"You know exactly just what I mean, Ino," Sakura replied, in an earnest tone, making it clear that her best friend was not going to try and play dumb with her request. Ino, underneath the initial shock that had plagued her, had known, perhaps from when the request had been made, the real meaning Sakura's words carried. It pained her to admit it, and she thought it unfair to Naruto, but it was a request from her best friend, and she knew that she probably would be unable to find a valid reason to turn down the request. Naruto was not supposed to learn about Sakura's disappearance until after the pink haired girl was gone.

Then again, Ino wondered, why give such an important task to her. Surely there were people more suited for such a thing than her, and her current standing with Naruto was certainly not going to allow her to carry out the request as nonchalantly as she would have in the past. She voiced her doubts to Sakura,"But…why me?"

Sakura shot a small smile to her best friend, before telling her, this time in an affectionate tone, "You're my best friend."

Ino's heart almost melted at this simple, but genuine response from her best friend, rendering her speechless and drawing her full throttle into accepting the request. Unknown to her, however, there was another smaller, minuscule reason that Sakura had bequeathed this request to her. A reason that would probably disgust Ino if she learnt of it. Inwardly, the pink haired girl realized that she was somewhat comfortable with the idea of Naruto spending time with her best friend, rather than Hyuuga Hinata. She did not know how she knew exactly, but Sakura had a nagging feeling that after the blue haired girl's confession, she was bound to be bolder with her advances towards Naruto, a thought that unnerved Sakura. The thought of Hinata spending time with Naruto and making merry with him in her absence made her feel more uncomfortable than she had thought, her heart aching a little. She wondered whether this thought made her selfish. This thought served to harden her resolve, however, as she promised to come back as soon as she could. After all, she thought, with a smile, she was bound to be Naruto's soon, and likewise, him hers.

The blonde girl was completely assured that Sakura was doing the right thing, even assenting as to her request, but even after all that had been said and done; there was still one thing she wanted to make sure of. This time, it was something which she could simply not keep secret from her best friend, like the matter with Naruto she had decided to keep her lips sealed over earlier. A bit unsure as she was treading upon unchartered waters, she asked her best friend," What if…just what if, something was to happen between me and Naruto? What would happen then?"

Sakura was surprised at being asked such a question, much less from Ino, of all people. Ino had never shown any form of interest in Naruto, more than was considered normal between people who knew each other, but with the recent turn of events that had occurred in the village, it certainly did not seem such impossibility. Naruto had been accepted as the hero of the village, which meant that soon enough, girls, would begin to express interest in him and make their advances on him. Perhaps Ino had been the first of all of them, Sakura realized, but she chose not to spoke of it. After all, what mattered, more than anything, was that Naruto was happy, with or without her nonetheless.

She smiled again at Ino, for what was the second time in a matter of minutes, and then told her, this time in an uppity voice," In that case, then you just have to focus on making him happy!" This response had Ino thinking that her best friend was making a joke in terrible taste, but she banished the thought as she realized that with the current mood in the atmosphere, it was hardly any time for joking. Her expression herself was also stern, a sharp contrast to the tone she had used in replying to Ino's question, and with that, Ino realized that underneath all the bravery Sakura outwardly expressed, inside, she was probably fearful over not knowing what was going to happen from that point onwards. With all the planning the pink haired girl had made and all the thought she had poured into it, there was the chance that Sakura would not come back, since one never knew what could happen to them amidst a mission, and the Medic, bearing full knowledge of that, had in a sense given Ino a chance to give Naruto the happiness she would be unable to give him. She was not sure whether he would be willing to accept it, but there were no rules that dissuaded Ino from trying. Sakura felt her intuition prickling at her, telling her that in the best case scenario, even if she came back safely from the trip she was about to embark on, there was no chance she would come back unscathed.

Ino, her thoughts mirroring her best friend's thoughts at that moment, grew increasingly worried over what would happen to her best friend, but she knew as well as she did that it was already too late to go back on her word. So she proceeded to do the only thing she could do in such a situation, shifting slightly in her position on the bed, and drawing her best friend into a hug. Sakura was caught off guard by the sudden gesture, but returned it with as much warmth as she could muster, allowing her to show weakness in front of her best friend as her heart suddenly grew heavy, and tears welling in her eyes and making their way down her cheeks. Ino told Sakura, her mouth resting near her ear, and herself bearing as heavy a heart as her best friend at the moment," Take care of you. If you don't come back I'll find you and make you pay."

Sakura stifled a giggle, then replied, in the age-old manner she had been used to calling her best friend, a habit she had not done in so longer but that had never really left her mind," Thanks, Ino-chan."

 _Later on that night_

Uzumaki Naruto had just curled into his bed, preparing to take his first winks of sleep, when he heard a soft prattle on his door. He thought it to be a figment of his imagination at first, but then the rattling increased, slightly unnerving him. He had just come from taking a long shower himself, realizing that he had spent more energy than he had intended upon that day, after which he proceeded to treat himself to a bowl of ramen, courtesy of the packs he kept stashed in his refrigerator, and just a few moments ago, he had been about to call it a day, before this intrusion happened upon him.

His first thought was that it was a shady person, since the village security wasn't exactly at its best owing to the recent tragedy that had befallen the village. Cautiously, he made his way to the door, his arm posed to land a devastating blow as whoever had thought to raid him so boldly, but when he swung the door open, it was his eyes that threatened to pop out of their sockets.

It was the same blonde girl who he had the unfortunate (or maybe fortunate? He was really not sure at this point) chance to spend most of his day with, and apparently, she did not seem to be quite done with him yet.

"What are you doing here so late, Ino?" Naruto questioned his friend, all the ideas he had of sleep before harshly thrown out the window as his mind raced with possibilities of why the girl had come to see him when the land was covered in darkness. His first thought was of course, that she had left something at his place when she had escorted him here earlier, but then again, that didn't make sense as she did not even enter his abode.

Surprising him more, however, the blonde girl said nothing, continuing to flash Naruto the sly smile that she had been sporting ever since he had first opened that door to see her standing there. Hastily pushing Naruto out of the way, and almost causing him to lose his balance, Ino told him, once she was standing in the middle of his living room," I'll be staying with you for a while, Naruto. No complaints."

The response left the blonde man in a bewildered mood, his mouth wide aghast as the words reverberated in his mind over and over again. What had brought on this bizarre chain of events? Ino registered the expression on his face, terming it as priceless and making a mental note to remember it. Naruto said nothing for a few seconds, so she proceeded to continue, satiating his disbelief and attempting to reassure him some," I'll be staying on the couch, silly, so you won't have to worry about bedspace."

As if a man who had just seen a ghost, Naruto robotically said, speaking for the first time since Ino had voiced her bold statement earlier," That isn't the issue here."

Ino did not catch his response just then, or if she did she gave no sign of having listened to it, adding on,"I'll need to borrow some old clothes from you while I'm here. "She then proceeded to make a beeline for Naruto's bedroom, which luckily was the next room after his living room. The blonde man remained rooted to the ground at the entrance to his own house, his mind still in disarray over what had happened? Was this a dream? He pinched himself, the sharp pain showing him that it was still reality. Moments later, Ino appeared clutching a blanket, which he recognized duly as having been taken from his bed. She then placed herself on one of his couches, covering herself with it and hiding her face from his view, reassuring herself that she would see a lot of those expressions from Naruto in her tenure there. The couch, while slightly cold, was surprisingly cozy and comfortable, and she knew that it would not take her long to doze off in that condition. With a note of finality in her voice, she mumbled a "Goodnight" to Naruto from under her blankets.

The blonde man, now irritated at having been ignored the whole time, half shouted at his fellow blonde," I'm not done talking to you!" His hands were placed on his chest, and he was tapping a finger at his elbow, a show if his increasing impatience.

"Oh put a sock in it, will you? We'll talk in the morning," Ino replied underneath her blanket, her tone bearing an air of defiance.

Realizing that lingering there longer would probably cost him a night's worth of sleep and energy, Naruto huffed in exasperation, deciding to keep quiet. Grumbling underneath his breath however, he locked the front door to his house for the second time that evening, and with heavy footsteps that threatened to shake the entire house, he returned to his room to sleep. Unknown to him, however, the blonde girl that had intruded upon his company that night was making a slight cheer of victory, her plans already proving fruitful.

 _The following morning-Wee hours of dawn_

A pink haired girl was currently standing in front of Tsunade's door. Her resolve, as well as everything else, was now set in stone, so the final thing she had to do, which would be a mountain of a task, was to get permission from the Fifth Hokage to desert the village.

She knocked twice on the door, and was surprised to hear a response from the other side. "Come in," said Tsunade, in a half-distracted tone. Sakura was surprised to find Tsunade awake at that early moment in the morning. Usually at those wee hours of dawn the blonde woman would be sprawled over her desk, suffering a massive hangover from having drunk too much the previous evening, or in a best case scenario she would have overworked herself and fallen asleep on her desk, to be woken up by either Sakura or Shizune.

The Hokage, meanwhile, was neck deep buried in work, owing to the state the village was in. She had to deal with a lot of diplomatic issues, since scrolls bearing all forms of reactions came in left right and centre from the Village Council and from the Daimyo. Upon hearing someone knock and subsequently come in after she agreed to it, she was a tad surprised to see that it was her pink haired protégé who had been the one to come in. Stopping momentarily in her current action of going through a certain scroll, she placed her hands on her desk and focused her attention on Sakura," What's wrong? What brings you here so early in the morning?"

Tsunade's voice was a bit edgy, bringing Sakura to the realization that she was probably exhausted from having worked the whole night and not having taken any single wink of sleep. Doubt crept in her heart for a moment, as she dreaded to find out the reaction of her mentor, but she steeled her nerves, and mustered all the courage she could, before laying out her wish to Tsunade," Tsunade-sama, I'd like to file for permission to go and look for Uchiha Sasuke."

Tsunade's reaction, while slower than Ino's, was undoubtedly scarier since it did not show outwardly. Sakura registered an eye batting on her forehead, and then the blonde woman brought her hands to her mouth, covering it slightly. A few moments of uncomfortable silence followed, then the Hokage simply said," Sakura, do you realize the implications of what you're suggesting?" The Hokage herself was of course undoubtedly shocked, as she wondered what had brought forth such a preposterous request from her student, but she would do her best to try and understand what had happened. However, realizing that a certain blonde haired man was not next to the pink haired girl at the moment, Tsunade had a faint feeling that it had something to do with Naruto as well.

At this question, the pink haired girl nodded brusquely, affirming Tsunade's question, but the Hokage almost suddenly pressed another question on her," What brought this on? Why did you decide to do this just now?" It was weird. Normally, the one who would grasp at straws at any mention he heard of the word Sasuke was Naruto, who would then pressure for a mission to go out the village to look for the raven haired Uchiha, but here was the third member of their team, Haruno Sakura, now the one asking for such a mission. Something had definitely gone wrong somewhere, Tsunade realized, and she intended to get to the bottom of it whilst Sakura was still here. To this second question, Sakura hesitated slightly, debating whether or not it would do to tell the Hokage the same things she had discussed with Ino the previous night, something that Tsunade noticed silently. Her mind made up, however, she simply told the Hokage," It's for personal reasons, Hokage-sama."

 _Bingo._ Tsunade concluded, having an almost certain idea of what had caused this. The glint in Sakura's eyes at the moment only served to further her suspicions. She closed her eyes momentarily, then said, in a stern tone," This is for Naruto's sake, isn't it?" After all, Sakura only had that glint in her eyes whenever she wanted to do something for Naruto, Tsunade thought, as she remembered a time long ago when the pink haired kunoichi, who was still a girl back then, had come and requested to be trained as a Medical Ninja, bearing the same look of determination in her eyes.

Sakura was surprised, not expecting the Hokage to catch on so quickly, but she suddenly found herself rendered speechless. Tsunade took her silence as a sign that she had hit the nail on the head, and she felt irate with her protégé. While she admired the lengths to which she was going for Naruto, she simply could not give her leeway to embark on such a dangerous mission while she knew the stakes at hand. She bit her lower lip to suppress her anger that threatened to burst out right there and then, but still she could not control the tone of the words that poured out of her palate next, "Grow up, Sakura! You're no longer a girl. You know as well as I do that Uchiha Sasuke is a rogue Ninja, and missions like this require protocol. Understand the situation!"

The younger Medic nearly reeled back in the display of anger, but stood her ground and countered herself, with as much ferocity as she could," Tsunade-sama! Once I deal with this, I'll be on my first step to growing up! Please, just allow me this one request, and if you do I will forever be grateful to you."

Tsunade rubbed her eyes in exhaustion, her earlier outburst of anger draining her lungs of air. She debated in her mind what she would do to quell the younger girl's resolve, but realizing that it would probably take forever to do so, finally gave in, telling Sakura once she had calmed her breath.

"Fine then, I'll give you permission to go, but only on two conditions. " She registered the beaming expression on Sakura's face before continuing," One, you go with someone else, of your own choosing. Two, if you don't come back within a week you'll be classified as a Rogue Ninja, the same as Uchiha Sasuke. Are we clear on this?" Tsunade asked Sakura in a resigned manner.

The pink haired girl agreed, in her mind already having decided who would come with her. After all, it was a man who she had revealed to her dreams as a kunoichi the first day Team Seven had been formed, someone who had been witness to the way she had fawned over Sasuke back then. He would certainly be a great asset to this mission, as it would be a chance to see how the lone female on his team had come so far as a Kunoichi. Yes, his name was Hatake Kakashi.

 **A/N:** The ending feels a bit rushed, I know, but my hands are getting a bit cramped up and I had to finish this no sooner than today owing to a promise I made to a certain big fan of this story. Either way, really sorry on the delay to the update, but I hope this chapter turned out okay. If it did, make sure to leave a review after reading. Toodles!


	5. Roommate Drabbles

**Chapter 5**

 **Roommate Drabbles**

Yamanaka Ino was the first one to wake up the following morning, the sun already breaking its way past the clouds that were in the sky. As she stayed in her makeshift bed a while longer, she remembered the conversation she had with Sakura the previous evening, and surmised that by that moment Sakura was already out of the village. A feeling of worry bubbled in her for a moment regarding her best friend, but since she knew there was nothing she could do to change Sakura's mind, the best she could do was pray that her best friend would be safe.

Getting off the couch, she realized that there was something she had forgotten to check, and with a lot of haste that it caused her to trip over a table, she rushed to Naruto's bedroom. Taking a deep breath, she swung the door open; growing increasingly fearful that she would find the room vacant. She had the funny notion that if by any chance Naruto woke up before her; he would decide to go to Sakura's house to talk to her. There was no way in hell Ino was going to let Naruto bail out on her that way.

Luckily enough, she heard the snores before the door was fully ajar, and sighed in relief when she saw the blonde man sleeping noisily on his bed. Funny enough, she could see a blanket on the floor, obviously having fallen off the bed, and the other one was hanging dangerously off the edge of Naruto's bed. He was lying almost sideways with his hands above him, and from that display Ino was able to tell that Naruto was quite a rough sleeper. It was sort of funny seeing him sleep so awkwardly, but she contained her laughter and felt a wave of satisfaction wash over her.

Swinging his door shut in a slow manner so that she could not wake him up, the Yamanaka girl leaned on his door with her arms crossed over her chest as she pondered over what she was supposed to do next. All traces of sleep had eluded her from the fear that had grasped her momentarily, and she found it difficult to go back to bed. The only thing left for her was to prepare breakfast, although she had to remember that she was currently sharing a room with a certain other guy, meaning she had to include him in her plans for breakfast. Usually in her home, whenever she woke up she would find her mom having already prepared breakfast for both her and her dad, so she was not used to preparing breakfast a lot. Then again, this was certainly not an indication of her cooking skills, since she still had a lot of confidence in herself on that field.

She made her way to the kitchen, where she opened Naruto's fridge and proceeded to take a look inside. Ino did not expect to find anything out of the ordinary in there, of course, but still she felt slightly dismayed at the sight of only a few ingredients in there. There were only a handful of eggs, plus vegetables that looked as if they had overstayed their welcome in there, but worst of all was the fact that the ramen packets she found there were more than actual food.

She sighed in exasperation," How does someone even live like this?" Going on her knees, she began rummaging around the place as she looked if there were any other ingredients she had not seen, but alas, there was nothing more. Naruto was a pretty simple guy when it came to things like this. Well, Ino thought, it was certainly better than having an empty fridge, so the best she could do was make the most of what was offered to her.

Moments later, the blonde man felt his body stirring awake, and as soon as his eyes were open, he could feel the aroma of something waft into his nostrils. He arched his body upwards for a better feel of the smell, which put him at a loss as he was not sure just where it was coming from. It was the first time his house had ever smelled that way. Initially, he thought was that someone had broken into his house and was using his kitchen for whatever purpose, so he immediately jerked off his bed, losing his balance for a moment but managing to regain it as he made for his kitchen. As soon as he was outside the cooking area, however, he heard the humming of someone inside there, and the events from last night replayed in his mind. At the moment, he had been too sleepy to pay heed to anything that was happening to him, and he had dismissed all that he had seen then as a dream, but perhaps it had not been a dream after all.

The door to the kitchen swung open as his mind was still reeling with what had happened to him. "Don't just stand there. The food is ready, come have breakfast," Ino said to him, her arms on her waist. Naruto removed his hand from his face to look upon his guest, and he was mildly surprised to find her in an apron. More specifically, it was an apron that belonged to him, which Iruka had given him years ago as a birthday present but he had never gotten round to using it. He was not exactly one for using the kitchen to prepare his food, as he usually ate out most of the times, but now that he looked at Ino in the snow white garb, he realized that perhaps it suited her more than him.

He was able to recollect himself in time to respond to the girl," You were actually cooking? Wow." It was sort of an amazing thing for him when he thought of how anyone could decide to spend so much of their energy in the morning preparing a meal. Still, that did not prevent him from accepting Ino's offer and heading to the table where she had laid out the meal for both their breakfast.

"Why are you surprised I was cooking?" Ino asked him out of curiosity, as she walked back into the kitchen, a tad relieved that she was saved the trouble of having to go and wake Naruto up from his room.

"You don't look like a very good cook," Naruto said, still at the kitchen door. He was not sure exactly what the blonde girl had prepared, and was still doubtful of eating cooking from someone who had never cooked for him before.

Ino glanced back at him from the corner of her eye. "That's rude, you know. Despite looks I'm a really good cook, you know. Now get your ass in here and have something to eat before it turns cold," she responded in a slightly icy tone, and the shivers that sent down Naruto's spine made him enter the dining area with much needed haste.

What he found there had him at a loss for a few minutes, and he stared dumbfounded at the meal. It was unlike anything he had ever had for breakfast before. There was a fried egg on both sides of the table, and on two bowls he could see a mixture of vegetables, a thick brown soup plus what looked to be noodles on the side. It provided quite the sight for him, of course, and he felt his stomach rumbling noisily as he made himself comfortable on one of the seats. Ino sat opposite him, and without wasting any time, he immediately picked up the bowl and began slurping at the noodles plus soup.

It tasted like heaven. Upon swallowing the first helping, he looked at the bowl, then at the girl seated opposite him, who was currently helping herself to her egg, and wordlessly, he awaited an explanation from her. Ino was growing aware of the man's eyes on her, something that irritated her little as she preferred having her meals undisturbed. Placing her meal down, she looked at him with an annoyed glare. "What?"

Naruto was stupendous from the taste he had just taken from the meal. He looked at Ino with amazement. "What is this?"

Ino was surprised that he had actually been bothered to inquire what she had prepared, but from the tone in his voice and the look in his eyes, she could tell that he was extremely impressed by what he had just tasted. She smiled a little, clearly pleased. "It's just vegetable soup. Well if I had more ingredients I would prepare gravy to accompany your ramen, but that was the best I could do with what you had in your fridge. I decided to try preparing ramen with vegetable soup and not broth like you were used to. I hope that is okay?"

The blonde man was still beaming as he regarded the meal before him, and the smile that was currently on his visage seemed to be plastered there. It made Ino's heart flutter a little seeing him so happy with something she had done herself. "Okay, it's….wonderful. I've never had a breakfast like this….well, come to think of it; I've never really had a real breakfast before, other than ramen. It tastes really great, so thank you."

Ino's eyes widened from the impromptu show of appreciation, but all of a sudden a thought occurred to her. "Really? If you think that way I don't mind popping up every morning to prepare you breakfast." The tone in her voice was ecstatic when she had offered that suggestion, and a small part of her hoped that Naruto would agree with her. It would be a way for her to see him more and spend more time with him.

Naruto stayed silent a little as he took in the rest of the ramen, clearly engrossed in his thought. A few bites later, he looked up at Ino's cerulean eyes again before answering," That would be a great relief." He smiled warmly at her, an action that she mirrored.

Unfortunately or fortunately, however, Ino soon fell into her old habits as the smile on her face soon gave way to a smirk. She held out her chest slightly in a proud manner, something which Naruto did not seem to pay attention to, before responding, "The only thing you have to do to allow me to cook you breakfast daily is to let me spend every night here."

Naruto nearly choked on his food at that suggestion, but was able to swallow the noodles in his mouth before looking at Ino as if he had just seen a ghost. The warm feeling he had been feeling towards her moments earlier was soon replaced by a feeling of dread, and vividly, he remembered how the girl had whisked him away from her teammates the other day just when he was about to say hi to them. Grimly, he reminded that Ino was that kind of a girl and she could prove to be very selfish at times. He was not sure what he was supposed to feel about that side of her.

His answer came out curtly. "No way."

Ino was taken aback by his refusal, and when she realized the expression on his face was one of boredom, she felt dismayed. She banged her hands on the table in protest. "Why not?!"

Naruto did not break his gaze from her as he answered her, this time in a slightly worrisome voice. "Do you know how uncomfortable I was sleeping last night? I didn't know what you were planning to do to me in my sleeping!" He raised his arms in kind, as a show of how nervous he had really been feeling. Sleep had not come to him until the late hours of the night, and even then, he still slept withhis heart in his mouth.

Ino gasped a little in surprise," Wha-"but her amusement soon got the better of her and she found herself breaking out into a fit of laughter at how ridiculous Naruto sounded just then. A few moments of laughter after, she looked at Naruto once more with a gleam of amusement in her eyes. "Wait, you don't trust me? The great Hero of the Village is afraid of a girl who's obviously weaker than him. This is funny."

Naruto swing back into his seat, his hands resting behind him. "It's not like that. Well, the truth is, I've never exactly had anyone sleep over here before. So I was just nervous what would happen."

The blonde girl was surprised, and the look on her face changed to one of curiosity as she placed a hand on the table before her and rested her head on it. "Even Sakura?" She was not sure just what had driven her to ask that, but she had to admit a small part of her wanted to know ever since she learned that she was the first of his age mates to sleep over at Naruto's house.

"Why would she sleep over here?" Naruto was genuinely lost as to how that had even come up.

"Uh, because she's your best friend," Ino responded, before she had time to even think of a coherent reply. Just then she had spoken without thinking things through, and she hoped against all hope that she had not made things worse.

The blonde man swung back in his seat, sighing a little in his backward motion, causing Ino's breath to get caught in her throat. A small tinge of guilt cropped up in her, and she was just about to blurt out an apology and tell Naruto to forget that she had even brought up the topic in the first place, but he beat her to the punch. "Yeah, but we aren't THAT close you know. I mean, of course we trust each other with our lives, but sleeping over at each other's homes seems like an entirely different thing.

That took Ino by surprise, causing her to look at Naruto silently for a minute, but her curiosity overwhelmed her once again and she responded," Heeh, so what about me then? Are we that close yet?"

The earlier bored expression that had been on Naruto's face resurfaced and she found herself on the receiving end of his current demeanor. Placing a hand on the table, he said in a monotonous voice," Don't jump to conclusions. You're the one who let yourself in." At that moment, the blonde man realized that amidst everything that had happened the former evening and this morning, he had not even gotten a chance to ask the blonde girl why she had just opted to pop up at his house unannounced like that, although he figured that the girl might have done it purely because she wanted to.

She smiled cheekily at him. "I did, but you didn't chase me away, right?" She then winked at him playfully, and with that, Naruto sighed in defeat as he resigned himself to the fact that his house had been intruded upon, and the sooner he got used to it, the better it would be for him.

Finishing the rest of his meal, he wiped his mouth clean before addressing Ino once more," Anyway, after this I'm planning to go to see Sakura-chan. So, uh, I don't know if you're still planning on coming with me."

The blonde girl's heart nearly leapt out of her, as she came to the crushing realization that she had to face this at one point or another. In hindsight, she had thought that he had somehow forgotten regarding what he had decided the previous day, but she knew that it would take more than that to get his mind off the pink haired girl. That saddened her a little.

Still, it would not deter her from the plans she had made for that day. This time, it was her turn to turn him down. "You can't do that."

Naruto nearly leapt out of his seat in astonishment. Just what had gotten over Ino then? "Huh? Listen, wasn't it your idea for me to postpone seeing her till today?" He tilted his head in confusion, crossing his arms over his chest as he looked at the blond girl in front of him, who had an unrelenting look on her face. She looked angry about something.

"Yeah, I did, and I've changed my mind again!" She stated in a defiant tone, her cheeks puffed out in anger. She continued, not allowing Naruto a chance to retort," If you go see Sakura and you have me as a guest, think about how that will make me feel dummy! That would be outright rude!" She protested in a raised voice. If there was one thing Ino was proud of regarding herself, it was the fact that she was a really good liar, even better than her best friend. It wasn't easy for anyone to pick up on when she was lying, much less someone like Naruto.

Ino counted her lucky stars as soon as she had protested to the blonde man and much to her glee, Naruto fell hook, line and sinker for her fib. He looked at Ino with an unreadable expression for a while, clearly struggling with which call to make in his mind. A moment later, he replied," You do have a point here. I'm sorry for being thoughtless there." He was not exactly sure whether postponing the meeting with Sakura was the right thing to do here, but in his mind he reassured himself that as long as the day was still young and not over yet, he would be able to create some time to go see the pink haired girl later on. Just then did he realize how much he missed her, as he had not seen her for a couple of days now? He wondered whether she felt the same about him.

The Yamanaka girl was delighted extremely at how she was able to draw Naruto's attention, but she held in her excitement and instead managed a warm smile at her host. She had never been as grateful for Naruto's slow nature as she was then.

"Besides, you'll have time to see her at the end of the day," she added on with a tone of finality, and Naruto's nod was enough to reassure her that he would not decide to drop by Sakura's place when he had intended to. After all, he was a man of his word.

"So, since that's out of the way, what do you have in mind for us to do during the day? I can't especially leave you here by yourself it seems," Naruto stated, and this time Ino registered the look on his face as one of slight curiosity. It calmed her some, and she proceeded to answer, "Let's go on a date."

Normally, Naruto would have been shocked by her suggestion, but at this point he had gotten a fairly good idea of what the girl was like. She was sort of like a female version of him, except with less hyperactivity and enthusiasm. It looked sort of weird when he thought of it that way, but he disregarded it for the moment.

"Not that I have any problems with that, but don't you have somewhere to be? I mean at the flower shop and all," Naruto said. While it had been ages ever since he had been to the Yamanaka Flower shop, but if memory served him right, Ino was always required to be at the shop daily helping out with the family business.

"The shop isn't exactly in good shape right now. So there isn't really much to do there," Ino responded.

Naruto stood up, and cleared his utensils off the table. As he walked to the sink to deposit them, he asked," Hmm, then I guess there should be no problems now. Are you planning on go to the top of the mountain again?"

Ino stood up, straightening her hair then proceeding to clean the table. Once she was done, she leaned against the wall of the kitchen, her hands clasped behind her back. "That does sound like a good idea, I admit, but well I wanted to try something new today."

Naruto raised his hands in the air and said," I'm all yours then. Blow me away."

The girl beamed at him, before proceeding to take his arm, before leading him out of the door. Looking back at him, she smiled brightly at him, before saying," What are you waiting for then? Let's go!"

 **A/N:** A bit short, I know, but well originally I was intending to include what Naruto and Ino will do for their date here, although if I did that it would dumb it down a little, so I decided to push it forward to next chapter. Apologies for the really long delay before I updated this, life can fly really fast when you aren't looking. You have to make do with this chapter before I dish out a really long one next time. Stay tuned, read, and most of all enjoy!


	6. A Date to Never Forget

**Chapter 6**

 **A Date to Never Forget**

"Watch your step, navigating through these woods can be pretty tricky," the silver haired man beckoned to the girl who was a few paces ahead of him. They had been leaping through trees for a while now, a welcome change of pace as they had been afoot for quite a while before happening on the forest that separated the Village from the rest of the world.

"Sorry, Kakashi-sensei," the pink haired girl responded to her master, effectively slowing down her current pace and allowing herself to draw level with her master, who she had unwittingly gotten ahead of. She had been too caught up in her thoughts earlier to pay attention to her surroundings, something she berated herself for inwardly.

According to the position of the sun above them, it had been nearly six hours ever since they had set off from the village in the wee hours of the morning. The sun's rays beat down on the earth as it spread its shine all over the earth, but luckily enough for them; they were able to escape the worst of it by reveling in the shade cast by the canopy they were currently under. All around them, there was an eerie silence in the forest aside from the side of the rustle of leaves and the tweaking of branches as they leaped from one tree to another, and the occasional sound of birds chirping overhead.

"It's rare seeing you in a hurry like this. You want to find Sasuke that quickly?" Kakashi asked Sakura. The Sharingan wielder of course, had his reservations about this entire matter, from the moment it was sprung up on him, but he figured that they had a better chance of finding Sasuke as a two man cell, a smaller unit compared to how they did things in the past in larger groups. Initially he was compelled to ask why Sakura had chosen to have him tag along, but it wasn't exactly in a negative light, as he had felt that the village had grown awfully monotonous ever since the events of Pain's invasion. However, seeing how silent Sakura had been ever since they had set off from the village gates, he felt that it was a question better left unasked, and that the matter seemed to hold more value for Sakura than it did for him.

"Yeah, well, the sooner I meet him and clear things up, the sooner we can get back to the village and to….."

"Naruto?" Kakashi completed the sentence for her, to which she proceeded to nod brusquely.

"Sorry for making you tag along with me on this, Sensei," She said after her previous gesture, catching the older man by surprise. Ever since they had set out on this venture, he had taken note that Sakura had been quiet the entire time, something which was odd even for her. Even if she wasn't exactly as boisterous and talkative as her blonde haired teammate, she would still maintain a cheerful façade the entire mission and chip in a conversation or two on her part. This time, however, she had retained a completely grim expression the entire team, and it planted seeds of doubt in Kakashi's heart, as much as he tried to reassure himself that everything was alright.

"No worries," he said, smiling at her from under his mask as he closed his one visible eye in happiness the way he always did when he was happy," You're a part of Team Kakashi, so helping you out is what we should do as teammates, right?" He added on, feeling glad that Sakura had not changed at all. She was still the same girl that he had taken under his wing and that he had grow watch from a fledgling to the girl she was today.

Sakura looked to her teacher for a while, before focusing her vision back to the path ahead of her, and allowing herself to smile a little, feeling more reassured in her decision to confide in him about this mission. A memory prodded at her in that moment, of the time when they were kids and Team Seven had just been formed, the three members gathered atop the roof of the school building. She remembered how she had narrated her dream to her teacher with glee, and with a small feeling of shame, the person who she had said she hated as well. How things had come from far since then.

Pondering on it now, perhaps this had been the right thing to do all along. This provided a chance for her to show her teacher just how far she had come on her own as a shinobi, plus she would be able to finally realize what she had always wanted in her life perhaps had not been the right thing after all.

Before she had set on this journey, she had already come to the realization that there was no way she was going to tell Naruto of this decision, even if she was not going to have him tag along with her by any means. She was 200% sure that if Naruto caught wind of this through any means, he was definitely going to blow a fuse. And it wouldn't be the usual comedic bursts that came from him whenever she did something silly before him, it would be genuine anger. Thinking on it, she had never actually quite seen Naruto angry, which under normal circumstances would have been cause for curiosity from her inner, girly part, but at the moment she didn't have the luxury to mull over such things. She needed to get this out of the way first before proceeding with anything else.

In the back of her mind, however, she knew that there was the slight chance that Naruto was going to find out later on….but by that time; she hoped that she would be back in the village, safe and sound in order to tell him herself. Perhaps that would be the perfect beginning to the relationship that she wished to have with him. It was kind of funny, the more she thought of what waited for her back at the village, the more she felt inspired to spurn her feet more and resolve things on her end as soon as humanly possible. It would be quite disastrous if he found out through…other means….

Sakura shook her head to dissipate the stray negative thoughts that threatened to engulf her otherwise, clearing her mind effectively and in time to catch wind of what her teacher was telling her at that moment.

"What about you? Are you sure about this? Sasuke isn't exactly the same person that was on our team, you and Naruto assented to that when you happened upon him in Orochimaru's lair. He might not hesitate to kill you, or both of us for that matter," Kakashi explained to Sakura, feeling more confident to express the doubts he had been harboring in himself for a while now regarding the entire issue. His mind was still reeling with shock he had received when he had received news that Sasuke had killed Itachi. He had never expected any of his students to actually go through with the act of killing someone in cold murder, as he deemed that it was still too early for them to delve that deep into the shinobi world. It would obviously do little to wane Sakura's resolve, but it was worth a shot in order to find out what she thought regarding the matter.

Sakura sounded surprisingly calm when she opened her mouth to respond next, causing the remainder of Kakashi's complaints to die down. "Of course I know we are putting ourselves in danger, but Naruto, he's always put his life on the line for me. Ever since he made that promise to me, no, even before that, he's always been fighting for me. I want to be the kind of girl that can do the same for him. If I can't do at least that much, then, I'm not worthy to stand by his side."

There was a moment of silence after this response by the pink haired girl, and as soon as the last of it had escaped her palate, she realized that she was also surprised at herself a little. Kakashi looked at her for a moment, his one visible eye widened slightly in surprise, but before long his facial expression relaxed and there was a satisfied look on his face. There were no more qualms he had about what they were going to do. Normally, Kakashi would be resolute about her not doing something that dangerous, but it seemed that even without his watchful eye on her, she had grown a lot in more ways than just one. He was impressed by her resolve, and it made him want to root for her even more than he was.

"I see, well, hopefully everything will go well and we'll go home without a scratch, as fit as we are right now," he said in a conclusive tone, as he adjusted his hitai-ate on his forehead.

"Anything come from Pakkun and the others?" The Medic asks her Sensei, finally glad that they are on the same wavelength and can now focus whole heartedly on what lies ahead of them. Earlier on, before they had come upon this forested area; Kakashi had dispatched his ninja hounds to sniff out the area in hopes of catching any hint of Sasuke or his scent. It was more than likely not going to produce any results, but better safe than sorry in such circumstances, Kakashi thought to himself.

From what they had learned of Sasuke on their previous search for him, he was constantly on the move with the team that he seemed to have formed as soon as he had killed Orochimaru. Reminiscing on this, Kakashi gulped a little as he thought to himself that in a worst case scenario, they would have to overturn every rock in the Five Great Nations in order to find Sasuke.

He shook his head. "Nothing so far," he finally replied after checking for the chakra signatures of each of his summons. Summoning them had indeed enabled him to cover more ground, as they were quite a distance away from Sakura's and Kakashi's current position. But unfortunately there were still no positive results to show on their end. "It seems like we need to proceed further in. Wait-"he cut himself in mid sentence, stopping abruptly on top of the next branch that he placed his foot on.

Unconsciously, Sakura followed her master's cue, also stopping herself on the branch of the next tree that she landed on, but that did not prevent the doubt that was fostering in her heart to linger. "What's wrong?" She asked the silver haired man, at the same time looking around her for any sign of enemies or traps that they may have unknowingly triggered.

The Sharingan wielder placed a hand in front of her in a gesture to silence her. The two stood in silence for a moment, nothing around them except a faint sound of the chirping of birds at the tree tops around them. Kakashi arched his head slightly forward, trying to pick up any sounds or look for anything that lay in the murky darkness ahead of them. The sun's rays had seemed to be dwindling in the forest the deeper in they went, something that Sakura had not been privy to until that moment.

Without a further word to Sakura, Kakashi took to the ground beneath them, taking his position behind one of the rocks there, which luckily enough was large enough to hide both him and Sakura. A puzzled expression on her face, Sakura did as she had done earlier, taking her place beside her teacher on the rocks, the doubts in her heart growing more and lingering more than she had wished them to.

Once settled in beside her teacher and making sure that she was out of the view of anyone who might have shown up from the opposite direction, she posed a question to him, currently in the middle of peering from the edge of the rock. "What's wrong all of a sudden?"

Turning back to look at her from the corner of his eye, Kakashi placed a finger on his mouth, and before Sakura was about to protest at being told to keep quiet for the second time without any explanation, the older man pointed upwards in the sky above them. For a moment, nothing was in front of them, causing Sakura to contemplate her earlier decision. Then, it happened.

In an instant, a figure emerged from the darkness ahead of them, causing Sakura's heart to nearly leap into her mouth. Her initial thought was that it was an enemy, but once the figure had stopped dangerously close to a branch that was near them, her eyes finally adjusted to the form of the person. That dark hair that became progressively spiky as it moved backwards, there was no mistaking it.

Uchiha Sasuke was the man that had appeared.

Kakashi's one visible eye widened in shock, and for a moment he thought that he had been caught up in one wild dream. The pain that resulted when he pitched his knee, however, told him that all that was happening was real. But if that was the case then, why was Sasuke there?

It was too much of a coincidence. One moment they were out here looking for the Uchiha, and the next he had appeared here in front of them without as much as a struggle on their side. However, it would not take long for Kakashi to realize that things were not exactly as they seemed.

As if answering the plethora of questions that were currently whirling around in his mind, his eyes vision traversed the rest of his student's body. When he realized what garb Sasuke was currently in, Kakashi's heart nearly stopped. There was no way he would mistake that black cloak that had the red cloud pattern on it. He had seen that cloak too many times in the past in his encounter with people from _that_ group.

Beside him, Sakura voiced the shock that was still nesting in his mind, prompting Kakashi to immediately place his hand over her mouth in order to silence her "The Akat-!" She didn't need to say it out loud for him to realize it; the truth was evident right in front of their eyes.

For whatever reason, Sasuke was part of the Akatsuki.

As if this wasn't enough, something else happened that added to the current state of shock muddled with despair that Sakura and Kakashi were currently in. Moments later after Sasuke had emerged; three figures appeared from the darkness that he had emerged from himself, two of them taking their places beside him and the third one positioning them behind the dark haired male. The three were also draped in the Akatsuki garb similar to Sasuke, and all of a sudden things seemed to piece themselves together to Kakashi.

The white haired boy who was standing on Sasuke's right side spoke up," How long till we get to Konoha, Sasuke? I'm getting kind of tired here." He proceeded to reach inside his cloaks, pulling out a bottle of water and drinking from it a little before returning it into his cloak.

A flash of realization hit him at that moment, and his earlier momentary fears that he had shoved to the back of his mind came back in full force this time. It all made sense now, considering that both of their teams seemed to be heading in opposite directions. Sasuke and his team were headed towards the Hidden Leaf Village.

The orange haired man who was on Sasuke's left spoke up next, responding to the white haired man's earlier query. He seemed to emanate a natural calmness about him that for a moment Kakashi thought he did not fit at all with the group he was in. "According to the birds and animals, we should be able to make it to the village by evening."

Sasuke made no response to that, simply keeping his gaze arched forward and seemingly appearing ready to leave at a moment's notice.

The current state of events had left Kakashi in quite the dilemma. What were they supposed to do now? Stop Sasuke right there and then and have Sakura talk to him like she had initially set out to do…or…

Unfortunately for him, soon enough, it proved that they weren't going to be given much of a choice in the question.

The only female in the group, a red haired bespectacled girl who was the one at the rear, who had stayed oddly silent the whole time ever since the quartet had appeared, suddenly turned her head in the direction where Kakashi and Sakura were situated. The gesture caught Kakashi completely by surprise, but he still managed to whisk his head backwards in time and rest his head on the surface of the rock he was hiding behind with the pink haired medic. He hoped against all odds that he had managed to escape the girl's notice.

"You over there, get out!"

Alas, it was all for naught.

"What are you babbling about, Karin?" Suigetsu asked the red haired girl, peering over from the back of his shoulder. He had just gotten himself rejuvenated and was about to set off with Sasuke once more when her voice had disrupted the group's concentration.

Surprisingly, however, Sasuke scowled a little, before turning to look at Karin and offering her all his attention. In all the time he had spent with Karin, he had learned that he ought to take her seriously at all costs. "Karin, is someone tailing us?"

"No, it doesn't seem like it, the chakra signals just popped up right now. Two of them," Karin reiterated to Sasuke, before breaking her gaze and refocusing back in the general direction where Kakashi and Sakura were.

Kakashi sighed a little in exasperation before musing to himself in a tone laced with defeat," And after masking our chakra presences that well." Whoever that girl was, Sasuke had landed himself one hell of a Sensory Ninja. He adjusted his hitai-ate, an idea coming to him for a moment of whether to use his Sharingan, but he soon decided against it as it was too much of a risk.

It did not take him too long to realize that there was no one in the space beside him, a realization that made a chill run down his spine.

"Oh crap-"It was already too late.

"Sasuke-kun, I came here to talk to you."

Sakura's words just then hit harder than they should have. Well, so much for sitting down and coming up with a plan, things seemed to be out there now.

The pink haired girl was standing a few paces away from where she had been hiding out with Kakashi before, directly below where Sasuke and his team were and in plain sight of everyone in the vicinity. There was a resolute look in her eyes as she looked up at the quartet above her, more specifically at the dark haired Uchiha himself.

If there was ever a hint of surprise in Sasuke's glare at this impromptu reunion with his female teammate, then he never showed it. One of his hands was rested on his waist, and he had that smug tone when he responded to the pink haired girl," Sakura, huh? The fact that you're here means that Naruto is nearby as well, right?"

"Close enough, but unfortunately, Naruto didn't come with us today. It's just us," Kakashi responded, emerging from his earlier hiding place and making his presence known to everyone there. He had a surprisingly relaxed demeanor, owing to the way his hands were in his pockets. Their short lived ruse was already up, so there would be no merit in doing anything else here rather than the direct approach.

Sasuke still seemed unimpressed. "Kakashi, huh? Hmm, well this is quite the surprise," Sasuke mused, closing his eyes momentarily and a smirk appearing on his face.

"Who're they, Sasuke? Your friends?" Suigetsu asked, crouched low next to Sasuke and his attention also shifted to the newcomers that had just graced them with their presence. There was a curious look on his face as he stared down at Sakura and Kakashi, his hands folded and resting on his knees.

"It seems like it. They're from Konoha," Jugo chimed in, his attention constantly shifting between the duo from Konoha and his own teammates. He seemed as if he wasn't particularly interested in the musings of the two, his mind currently racing with more important thoughts.

Realizing that she would not get a better chance to get Sasuke's attention like what she currently had, Sakura decided to pursue her motive. "Can I have your attention for a few moments in private?" She asked the dark haired man in a confident tone.

"No."

The answer came almost immediately, and in a tone as icy as the glare that Sasuke was shooting at Kakashi and Sakura at that moment.

The pink haired girl was taken aback, but she had to remind herself that this was how Sasuke was even in the village, and if she gave up here then things would be all for naught. She would have ended up coming there for nothing. Before she could open her mouth to protest anymore, however, Sasuke cut across her sentence.

"I don't have to listen to anything that you, or much less Konoha has to say," he continued, his tone growing icier with each word that escaped his palate.

That sentence just then caught Kakashi's attention hook, line and sinker. "Konoha? What does Konoha have to do with anything?" He bobbed his head to the side in puzzlement, something in his gut feeling telling him that something really nasty was about to happen.

"You don't need to know that. I'll give you three seconds to get out of my sight," the Uchiha continued, disregarding anything that Sakura or Kakashi had to say to him effectively, and a grim expression making its way onto his face.

"Oi, Sasuke, don't be too hasty. There must be another way we can use them-"Suigetsu said, in an obvious attempt to try and calm down the man, but his explanation fell on deaf ears.

3.

"Sasuke, what's this about? You're acting stranger than usual," Kakashi said, finding it impossible to shake the odd feeling that had settled in his gut from earlier when Sasuke had dismissed them haphazardly. Then again, he had to remind himself that he had not seen his protégé in nearly three years, but even then the boy should not have changed that much, right? Contrary to what he thought at the moment, however, there seemed to be a dark aura pulsating from Sasuke at that moment, and it seemed to grow with each passing second.

2.

"Sasuke-kun, please, I need this," Sakura said, in a last ditch effort to get the dark haired man's attention. She was not about to throw in the towel, even if things did not seem to be on her side at the moment.

1.

"Time's up."

That was the last straw that broke the camel's back.

There was the momentary sound of chirping birds, and Kakashi had the sense to leap towards the pink haired Medic, who he knew was in immediate danger. Sasuke, on the other hand, was all but gone from the tree he had been standing on initially, leaving a whirl of leaves in his wake, adding on to Kakashi's earlier fearful feeling. He had a strong feeling where the Uchiha was about to appear next. He could only hope that he could make it in time.

"Wait."

The air seemed to go still with this deep resounding voice.

Before Kakashi and Sakura, the area in front of them warped in a shocking but eerily familiar manner and a familiar figure appeared where there had been moments before, nothing.

The masked man stretched out his hand beside him, and shortly afterwards, Sasuke appeared, the hand in which he had charged his Chidori technique currently in Tobi's grasp.

Sakura fell limply to the ground, and Kakashi heaved a sigh of relief. For the moment, it seemed as if they were safe, although as they soon recognized the man before them as the masked man who had given them trouble in the past when they first encountered him, it could easily mean that the situation would move from the frying pan and into the fire at the drop of a hat. Then again, it didn't seem as if escape was much of an option at the moment.

"Madara…." Sasuke muttered, while glaring daggers at the man from the corner of his eye. His Sharingan was already activated. "Why did you stop me?" He asked him in an irritated tone.

"Now, now, don't be hasty, Sasuke. They came here looking for you. After all they went through it would be a waste just disposing of them, right?" Tobi said in a calm manner, trying to make the younger Uchiha see the logic in his point of view.

"There's no point in keeping them alive either,"Sasuke shot back almost immediately. He dissipated the technique in his right hand, and Tobi released him from his grip consequentially.

"Not entirely," Tobi responded, before persisting," Think of it this way, you're heading to the Hidden Leaf Village. Ploughing through hordes of shinobi to get to your target might prove to be counterproductive in the long run, but on the other hand, using hostages might actually be simpler and it will help you to achieve your objective easier."

The Masked man stopped talking then, allowing his words to sink into Sasuke. The younger Uchiha remained silent for a few seconds, but to Kakashi and Sakura it seemed like a whole eternity before he finally made up his mind.

"That…does sound like something worth trying out," Sasuke said, arching his slowly to look at his two teammates.

A grim smile slowly etched its way onto his visage.

The day seemed to go by in a flash ever since Naruto had consented to going out with Ino on a date in the morning.

He was not sure where it had all started.

For what had been probably the first time in his life, he genuinely had a nice time without ramen being involved.

The entire day had seemed to be a bustle of activity, which was quite surprising, considering it wasn't even the festive season of the village yet.

In the morning, they had taken a walk through some flower gardens that Ino seemed to have picked out before. The first time Ino had told Naruto that she had wanted him to help pick out some flowers for the shop, Naruto had cringed. This had earned him a stern look from the blonde woman, a look that literally had him quaking in his boots and had him unwillingly agree to her whims.

He had even put some flowers in her hair at her insistence, but as soon as he was done, he thought that she looked really pretty.

In the afternoon, they had gone to have lunch at the barbecue stand where Ino told him that she always had meals with her teammates once they had returned from huge missions. At first, Naruto had been baffled as to why she would choose somewhere like that, when there was the all great Ichiraku Ramen, and since from the little he knew of girls they didn't like eating meat a lot since it increased their body weight. Chouji was a fine example of this, even if he wasn't a girl.

Surprising him, however, Ino admitted to secretly loving the barbecue served at that place, and the reason that she did not want to admit it to Chouji and Shikamaru was that she deemed it would be too embarrassing, plus it wouldn't be a girly thing to do. As soon as she had revealed this secret to Naruto, however, she had immediately covered her mouth in embarrassment, before telling him that if she ever told another living soul…well then something would happen to him that would make the readers cringe in their seats.

So it was with that little secret in mind that they spent the rest of the afternoon dining and drinking and making merry of each other's company. Of course, at first Naruto had been extremely uncomfortable as the threat from Ino was still ringing in his ears, but soon enough, he managed to steady his nerves enough to actually have a good time. It even escalated to the point where occasionally, Naruto would make a jape or a witty remark that would solicit at best a chuckle, and at worst rib-cracking laughter from the girl that would draw the eyes of all the people in the barbecue shop at that moment on them. Initially the notion had made Naruto uncomfortable, but soon enough, he grew well desensitized about it and he even joined Ino in her sporadic bursts of laughter.

After they were done with the barbecue stand, Naruto could have sworn that he had spent more on the bill total than his saving allowed him to, but luckily for him that day Ino seemed to be in quite the generous mood. Something in his gut told him that she had probably shoe horned her dad into giving her the money she needed for that day, but he decided not to pander over it any longer as it was quite a scary thought. Still, the realization that Ino had paid his part made him feel a little guilty, but he shrugged the feeling away, knowing Ino would never let him hear the end of it if she caught onto his slight feeling of guilt.

But what took the cake for him that day was definitely the evening. They had chosen to go to the park where Naruto hung out as a kid with Shikamaru, Choji and Kiba. It was nothing extraordinary, really, but perhaps that was what had made it more special all the same. Seated on the swings that were still there, he and Ino simply talked and chatted about the most random of things. It had churned up more laughs and giggles from the blonde girl than it did the man, as she found herself revealing some of the most embarrassing secrets of her youth, such as her rivalry with Sakura over Sasuke's affections.

Before Naruto had known it, the sun was already disappearing over the horizon, casting a dim shadow over the village that signaled the herald of the evening. That meant that it was time to go.

"I had a lot of fun today. Thanks, Ino," Naruto remarked to the girl, the two of them now walking towards Naruto's house. He was really glad that he had decided to take her on her offer, and a small part of him wished that more chances like this availed themselves in the future.

The sudden gesture had flustered Ino more than she had expected, and she found her cheeks growing red beside herself. She quickly brought up her hands to cover her cheeks and hoped that Naruto would not take note. They were currently standing at the foot of the staircase that led up to Naruto's house.

Naruto seemed oddly gleeful that evening, and Ino had a funny feeling why. She actually felt a little bad that things weren't going to go as well as he had probably envisioned them, but even then, she was prepared to stick by her best friend through thick and thin.

"Now then, time to go see Sakura-chan!" Naruto added on, and the ear to ear smile on his face just then seemed as if it was about to leak out and infect the people around them.

The red that had inadvertently stain her cheeks from Naruto's earlier remark ebbed away from this statement and a feeling of guilt nearly washed over her, but it all came to a halt when she saw the bright smile Naruto had on his face just then.

It almost made her want to mirror the action in kind, but she needed to do something else at the moment. The blonde man turned his back to Ino and trudged cheerfully a few steps away from her and in the opposite direction, when she called out to him.

"Naruto…." She said weakly, a little hesitatingly as a small part of her wished that the man did not hear her just then. Unfortunately for her, Naruto heard her loud and clear, stopping in his tracks and turning back to look at her.

"Ino?" He asked, and there was a curious expression on his face.

Great, now what was she supposed to say?

For a moment, her mind ran blank, and she simply stood there dumbfounded. A thought occurred to her at that moment and she contemplated sending him back on his way, dismissing her earlier call. Still, the feeling that had lingered in her for a while all this time kicked in, reminding her that she had a responsibility in what was about to transpire.

"Let me come with you," she said, immediately grabbing for the first words that popped up in her mind.

Naruto folded his hands across his chest, closing his eyes in thought and tilting his head to the side. Ino feared that he was going to deny her request in favor of enjoying a little privacy with Sakura as he had something important to tell her.

Luckily, it seemed that wasn't going to be the case.

"Sure, I don't see why not. But when I'm talking to her, could you wait outside for me?"

That was more than she needed.

Nodding silently, she took his place by his side, and together they set off for the pink haired girl's abode.

 **A/N:** Originally this chapter was supposed to be longer than this with a few more details than what has happened here, but I figured that what's left can easily be squeezed into the next chapter. I hope this chapter turned out okay though; it definitely carried just the right amount of details that I wanted to portray in it, and in the right manner I wanted them.

So as always, make sure to read, review and enjoy. Lots of love!


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